Is a visual artist born & based in Brownsville, Texas
My work comes from growing up in a working-class Mexican American household in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. I recreate moments from my childhood and adolescence that stayed with me. Small, ordinary scenes that once felt embarrassing, heavy, or confusing, and now feel tender, funny, and deeply meaningful. Through images of casitas, bedrooms, backyards, bathrooms, and windows, I try to hold onto the places and moments that have shaped who I am over time.
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The home is where I learned everything: how to be a daughter, a sister, a girl, and eventually myself. Mothers, sisters, and caretakers appear throughout my work, honoring the quiet labor and love that filled our days. Hair braiding, bathing, cleaning, watching TV, eating together, and even moments of rebellion become important markers of growing up. These scenes reflect how love, fear, beauty, discipline, and care all exist at once inside a family.
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Casitas are central to my work. Their pastel colors, barred windows, worn furniture, and handmade fixes carry the visual language of the Valley I remember, one that is slowly disappearing. As a kid, I didn’t always feel proud of our home. By returning to these spaces across my practice, I’m able to reclaim them, turning past shame into gratitude and pride. Windows and ventanitas show small glimpses of life inside, much like memory itself; partial, intimate, and layered.
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I see my work as a way of preserving what might otherwise be lost. Whether through large scenes or small, handmade casitas made from leftover materials, each piece is an act of care. My work is not about idealizing the past, but about telling the truth; about class, family, love, and becoming.
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At its heart, my practice is about honoring where I come from. By revisiting these rooms, objects, and moments over time, I’m building a personal archive that also speaks to shared experiences, especially for those who grew up on the border. I want my work to feel familiar, honest, and full of life; like stepping back into a place you know by heart.
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Marcelina Gonzales (b. 1989, Brownsville, Texas) is a resin collage and mixed-media assemblage artist whose work reconstructs fragmented memories of her upbringing along the U.S.-Mexico border. Pulling (quite literally) from her family, who remain private but open when asked, and from the domestic objects preserved in old photographs, Gonzales encapsulates the colors, textures, and rhythms of everyday life in the Rio Grande Valley, celebrating a time and place that is home. She earned her BA in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Brownsville in 2013 and has had her work exhibited nationally, including at Field Projects (New York City), Chefas Projects (Portland), and Centro de Artes Gallery (San Antonio).
