About

Marcella Colavecchio is an Italian-American contemporary visual artist whose work explores the tension between memory, identity, and constructed narratives. Known for her evocative paintings and photographs, Marcella's recent work takes a more intimate and cinematic turn, drawing deeply from her family’s immigrant history and the emotional textures of 20th-century Americana. Her latest series reimagines ordinary spaces like department stores, diners, and laundromats through the lens of her mother’s journey as a young Italian immigrant in 1970s America, infusing each setting with quiet longing, stylized composition, and retro color palettes.

While her earlier work was defined by exaggerated lighting and vibrant, theatrical worlds, her current practice leans into stillness and restraint—merging nostalgic realism with painterly softness, influenced by both Wes Anderson’s visual symmetry and the emotive brushwork of figurative painters like Amy Dury. Whether she's working from vintage photographs or staging scenes inspired by personal history, Marcella’s paintings maintain an emotional undercurrent that speaks to belonging, labor, memory, and the delicate space between past and present.

Marcella is largely self-taught but studied classical drawing at Lyme Academy of Fine Art under the master draftsman Deane G. Keller. Her work has garnered national attention with exhibitions at Anya Tish Gallery in Houston, TX, and Commerce Gallery in Lockhart, TX, and she was a finalist for the prestigious No Dead Artists exhibition at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans, LA.

Her work has been featured in Austin Monthly, Houston CityBook, Sightlines Magazine, Almost Real Things, The Austin Chronicle, The Austin American-Statesman, and Split Lip Magazine.

Marcella’s work can be viewed at Commerce Gallery, Anya Tish Gallery, and The Cathedral.