
marisa
purcell
Marisa Purcell is an Australian visual artist who has been exhibiting regularly since 2000. She has held solo exhibitions in Australia, Europe, Asia and the USA and her work appears in both private and public collections. Marisa works primarily in abstraction, where fields of paint saturate the large linen surfaces. Her work is said to evoke physical sensations, beyond the verbal and literal responses that are asked of us so much. Her work invites a connection that reminds us of our essential natures. The essential tone of a color, and its emotional resonance Marisa’s primary motivation. In its essence, painting can saturate the viewer with a connective feeling- one that bypasses the verbal and acts as a mirror. In her practice, she uses multi-layered surfaces which change depending on the viewing angle. Marisa has developed a distinctive language of abstraction which calls to mind the way our perception functions and invites the viewer to become aware of the act of looking. The compositions convey a sensation of warped space, revealing her interest in perception. There is a dynamic tension in Marisa’s paintings between amorphous floating fields of colour and the veiled edges they sit upon..
CV
SCHOLARSHIPS & AWARDS
2024 Finalist: Ravenswood Art Prize
2024 Finalist: Grace Cossington Smith Art Prize
2023 Finalist: Waverley Art Prize
2023 Finalist: Paddington Art Prize
2023 Finalist: The Mosman Art Prize
2023 Finalist: Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales
2021 Finalist: Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales
2018 Finalist: Ravenswood Art Prize for Women
2018 Finalist: Paddington Art Prize
2018 Finalist: Redlands Art award
2017 Finalist: Ravenswood Art Prize for Women
2017 Finalist: The Paddington Art Prize, Sydney
2017 Finalist: Grace Cossington Smith Art Prize
2015 Winner - Acrylic prize, Waverley Art Prize
2014 Finalist - The Waverley Art Prize
2013 Highly commended- Waverley Art Prize
2009 Australia Council for the Arts, New Work Grant
2007 University of Sydney Post-Graduate Award
2001 ‘India Link’ grant to finance ‘Same, same but different’
2000 National Association of Visual Arts (NAVA) Artists Marketing Scheme Grant for
2000 ‘Hum’ exhibition, Global Gallery, Sydney
2000 The Blackbird Art Prize, 2nd Prize
1999 The Elioth Gruner Painting Prize – Joint Winner
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Light Savour, Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide
2022 Timbre, Olsen Gallery, Sydney
2022 Salon Art and Design Fair, Park Ave Armory, New York
2021 Endlessness, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane
2020 Out the Window, Olsen Gallery, Sydney
2019 Field Work, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane
2018 Collision, Olsen Contemporary, Sydney
2018 Realm, OlsenGruin, New York
2018 Transmission, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane
2017 Facet (part b), Olsen Gallery, Sydney
2016 Facet (part a), Olsen Gallery (Works on paper gallery)
2016 Screen, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane
2016 Loom, Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne
2015 Unbounded, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane
2014 Walking with Time, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane
2014 Polyphony, Olsen Irwin, Sydney
2013 Zone, Block Projects, Melbourne
2013 Communion, Edwina Corlette, Brisbane
2012 Halo, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney
2012 Murmuration, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane
2011 Immanence, Edwina Corlette Gallery, New Farm, Brisbane
2010 Night Crossings, Tight: Projects, Kings Cross, Sydney
2010 ‘Portrait of the Seeping Through’, MOP project space, Chippendale, Sydney
2008 Installation / Design for ‘Manna’ (theatre set) at Sydney Theatre Company
2008 Only the Memories are New, Ryan Renshaw Gallery, Brisbane
2007 Post-Graduating exhibition, Sydney College of the Arts
2007 Places to Remember, The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong
2006 Time Being United Galleries, Sydney
2005 The Entrance, Cite Internationale des arts, Paris
2004 In Between, Table Gallery, Basel, Switzerland
2004 Sticky Nights Station21, Zurich, Switzerland
2003 Translations, FUGE/Verein Pro Fuge, Grünau, Zürich, Switzerland
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Melbourne Art Fair, Day01 Gallery
2024 Art Basel, Miami, exhibiting with Arden and White Gallery, December
2024 Day01 Gallery, ‘Wayne’s World’, 2 person show with Stephanie Houghton
2024 Arden+White Gallery Connecticut. 2 person show with Franziska Reinbothe.
2024 Beauty Runs the Gauntlet -International Women’s Day exhibition, Bondi Pavilion.
2023 Australian Abstract, Michael Reid ArtBar, Sydney
2023 SOUND COLOUR, Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf, Sydney
2023 Sydney Contemporary, Olsen Gallery
2022 Literally Split, Olsen Annexe Gallery, Sydney
2022 Light Matter, 2 person show with Julian Meagher, Edwina Corlette Gallery,Brisbane
2022 Mosman Art Prize Exhibition
2022 Waverley Art Prize Exhibition
2022 Vincent Art Prize Exhibition
2021 Crepuscule, Olsen Annexe Gallery, Sydney
2021 Outside In, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane
2021 Raven, Fox Jensen Gallery, Sydney and Fox Jensen Auckland
2020 Fishers’ Ghost Art Prize, Finalist
2020 Sydney Contemporary 2020
2018 Traces of Places, curated by Todd Fuller and Liz Reidy, Bondi Pavilion Gallery
2018 All We Can’t See - Illustrating the Nauru Files, (Touring) Sydney, Melbourne,
2018 Adelaide 2019
2018 Imagine, curated by Simon Gregg, Gippsland Regional Gallery
2017 Sydney Contemporary, Olsen Contemporary
2017 The Art Hunter, Sydney
2013 Sydney Contemporary
2012 Painting as presence, MOP Projects, Sydney
2011 Wattle, Selected Australian artists, The Cat St Gallery, Hong Kong
2010 Beyond the Field, Bondi Pavilion Art Gallery, Bondi Beach, Sydney
2010 Still Life: FBI Fundraiser Auction, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
2009 Art on Paper Hazelhurst Regional Art Gallery
2009 Reflections of Australia, Beijing
2008 Utz Travelling Scholarship Exhibition, Metro Arts, Brisbane
2008 Stations of the Cross, St Ives Uniting Church
2008 Art Dubai Contemporary Art Fair, Kashya Hildebrand (Zurich)
2008 New Generation, Ryan Renshaw Gallery, Off the Wall, Brisbane Art Fair
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2021 Major Public Art commission with SJB Architects, Surry Hills
2019 Writing course with American author and academic, Sarah Sentilles and mentor for writing project
2018 Indian miniature painting with master painter Ajay Sharma
2015 PUBLICATION - ‘Polyphony’, Walking with W.G Sebald, Pergolesi and Tarkovsky’, published in ‘Dirty Laundry’ Magazine.
ARTIST RESIDENCIES
2024 Bundanon AIR
2023 Gang Gang artist residency, Bermagui
2020 AIR Nancy Fairfax artist residency, Tweed River Regional Gallery
2020 Gang Gang artist residency, Bermagui
2019 KRP Kedewatan, Ubud Bali
2018 Bundanon AIR
2012 La Macina di San Cresci- Chianti, Italy
2009 Waverley Council 6 month Studio Residency. Bondi Rd. Studios
2007 Hill End Residency, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery
2004 Cite Internationale des arts, 3 month residency, Paris, France
2003 FUGE/Verein Pro Fuge, 6 month residency, Zürich, Switzerland
EDUCATION
2007 Master of Visual Arts, University of Sydney, SCA
2001 Master of Art Administration (major elective: painting) University of New South Wales, College of Fine Arts, Paddington, Sydney, NSW, Australia
1994 Post Grad Cert - Printmaking, National Art School
1993 Bachelor of Educational Studies (art) University of Queensland