Bio
Wellington-based artist Zoë Marsden creates meticulously detailed paintings that depict derelict, abandoned, or architecturally idiosyncratic buildings. These retired structures, no longer serving their intended function, evoke a quiet, uncanny presence in compositions Marsden captures with sensitivity and precision. Working in oil on board and drawn to their atmospheric stillness and haunting beauty, she transforms these spaces into sites of poetic resonance.
Each building portrayed is one the artist has personally encountered and formed a connection with. Yet, in her studio practice, she frequently shifts their context, relocating or reimagining their surroundings to evoke a specific emotional tone. Her deliberately understated titles avoid geographic markers, inviting viewers to respond to mood and memory rather than literal place.
“Being devoid of human life, the paintings act like a story that you, the viewer, are now part of. What has happened here, is something about to happen?
Should I keep walking, or should I look inside?” – Zoë Marsden
