Marisa Purcell (b. 1971, Brisbane) lives and works in Sydney, Australia. She earned her Master of Visual Arts from the University of Sydney in 2007, following a Master of Art from the University of New South Wales College of Fine Arts in 2001.
Working within abstraction, Purcell seeks to reveal connections that exist beyond everyday perception. Her process is improvisational, unfolding across expansive Italian linen canvases that become conduits for forces and sensations that resist conscious understanding. Through delicate veils of color, Purcell builds layered translucencies that evoke depth, atmosphere, and quiet motion. Variations in hue accumulate and shift, creating large, floating forms that hover between material and immaterial. At the edges of the canvas, overlapping layers expose traces of process and perception. Her immersive, contemplative paintings highlight both the purity and intensity of color and the ethereal space that arises within their interplay.