about mary souza
San Francisco Bay Area artist Mary Souza explores emergence and transformation across abstraction and the figure in oil and mixed media paintings that are rich with layers of a process. Influenced by Cy Twombly and Nathan Oliveira, her work is characterized by energetic gesture and layering: She scribbles, drips, and obscures paint using palette knives, fingers, and sticks to create paintings rich with the history of their own making.
I’m interested in paintings that function as objects of contemplation — work that doesn’t announce itself immediately but unfolds slowly for those willing to spend time with it.
Residencies at KALA Art Institute in Berkeley and as a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome deepened her trust in chance, risk-taking, and non-judgmental mark-making, bringing greater freedom to both her abstract and figurative work.
Souza’s work has been acquired by private collectors internationally and is held in The Koret Foundation Collection and other corporate collections in the United States. Currently affiliated with Saatchi Art, she has exhibited in galleries worldwide and has been featured in contemporary art publications, such as Studio Visit and CONTENT magazines.