Artists We Work With

A Community of Artists Working Across Disciplines

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ABIGAIL Gomez

Abigail is an abstract painter whose background includes business, education and athletics.. A certified Montessori guide, personal trainer, and entrepreneur, she brings a driven and energetic approach to her creative practice.

She creates large-scale paintings that often include layered surfaces, hidden messages, and expressive use of color. Abigail approaches the residency with curiosity and openness, using the program as a space to push her work further and deepen her understanding of composition, color relationships, and personal direction within her work.

CECILIA Prandi

Cecilia Prandi is an Argentine artist based in Houston whose practice is rooted in research, material investigation, and conceptual thinking. Born into a family of artists, she studied Fine Arts and Stage Design in Buenos Aires before continuing her education in photography, ceramics, and Venetian mosaic.

Since moving to the United States in 2008, her experience as an immigrant has become closely tied to her work. She currently works with cardboard as a primary material, examining ideas surrounding labor, consumption, industrial waste, and value. Cecilia brings a thoughtful and analytical perspective to the residency, with a practice shaped by careful research and a deep attention to process and meaning.

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CORA Salvino

Cora is a Houston-based glass artist whose practice is driven by experimentation, process, and a genuine love for the material. Working primarily with fused glass, she is deeply engaged with the technical side of making and is constantly exploring new approaches inside the kiln.

As a newer artist, Cora brings an enthusiastic and hands-on energy to the residency, actively participating in art markets and exhibitions across Houston while continuing to develop her voice through material exploration and experimentation.

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Elijah Caldwell is a Houston-based artist and educator whose work explores realism, movement, and storytelling through painting and drawing. Recently, his practice has focused on car culture, combining detailed observation with energetic compositions that capture motion, atmosphere, and personal connection to the subject.

Alongside his studio practice, Elijah is deeply involved in arts education and community building through Creative Connections, where he helps create opportunities for artists to connect, grow, and share their work. He brings a collaborative and generous energy to the residency.

ELIJAH Caldwell
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Maria Gabriela Bello is a ceramic artist whose practice is shaped by patience, experimentation, and a deep respect for process. With a background in engineering, she brings a strong sense of structure and precision to her work, carefully exploring materials, glaze combinations, porcelain, and firing techniques through ongoing experimentation.

Beginning with functional ceramics, her practice has gradually expanded into sculptural work and object design. Gabriela brings a thoughtful and process-driven approach to the residency, always refining and pushing her understanding of the material further.

GABRIELA Bello
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HOLLY Josey

Holly Josey is a Houston-based artist whose drawings and paintings are created through collaboration with trees, wind, and time. Suspending pens from branches, she allows the movement of the wind to guide the marks across the surface over hours and days, embracing chance, unpredictability, and natural forces as essential parts of the work.

Josey studied Art History at the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and is an alumna of The BLOCK Program XXIII and XXIV. She was also part of the 2024–2025 Artist Residency at Monterroso Gallery.

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Lindsey Creel is a Houston-based artist and Assistant Professor of Drawing at Stephen F. Austin State University. Her practice moves between drawing, fiber, and painting, often working with subtle color palettes, layered surfaces, and delicate mark making influenced by fabric and the natural world.

Recently, her work has shifted further into abstraction while remaining connected to organic forms and material sensitivity. Fabric, texture, and nature references continue to play an important role in her process, reflecting an interest in comfort, observation, and the natural world. Lindsey brings a thoughtful and articulate perspective to the residency, offering clear and generous feedback that has become an important part of the group dynamic.

LINDSEY Creel
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Maria Rusinek is a Houston-based artist with Venezuelan roots whose practice moves between painting and ceramics. Her work began in painting, developing a visual language shaped by geometric abstraction, architecture, family, and the idea of place. Her paintings often feel like close observations of spaces and structures translated into layered compositions on canvas.

More recently, she has brought those same ideas into ceramics, creating geometric vessels and house-like forms that transform her two-dimensional language into sculptural work. Maria is deeply committed to the ceramic process, approaching glazing and surface treatment with patience, precision, and consistency.

MARIA Rusinek
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MARINA Fernandez

Marina Fernandez is an Argentine artist whose geometric abstract paintings are shaped by memory and place. Working in acrylic and mixed media on linen and canvas, her compositions often reference maps, coordinates, landscapes, and the colors connected to specific locations and experiences gathered throughout a life lived across different cultures.

With a background in engineering, her work balances clean lines, layered planes, and transparency. Recently, her work has continued to evolve through experimentation with collage and mixed media processes. Marina was part of the 2024–2025 residency program at Monterroso Gallery.

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Ruby Pinedo-Fear is a Colombian-British artist based in Houston whose practice spans painting, sculpture, and printmaking. After working professionally as a dentist, she shifted her focus fully to the arts, building a practice shaped by living and working across Colombia, England, Russia, Trinidad, Canada, France, Denmark, Portugal, and the United States.

Her work reflects a strong sense of curiosity and experimentation, moving across materials, processes, and disciplines with spontaneity and openness. Ruby brings an energetic and adventurous approach to the residency, always exploring new ways of making and thinking through art.

RUBY Pinedo-Fear
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Sebastian Apaestegui is an abstract artist whose practice moves across painting, paper, fiber-like materials, and sewing techniques to create layered works that sit between image and object. Through careful composition, texture, and construction, his two-dimensional works often feel sculptural, as if they are beginning to emerge from the wall.

A resident during the 2024–2025 program at Monterroso Gallery, Sebastian is known for his strong visual sensibility and attention to detail. His work reflects an ongoing exploration of material, surface, and structure through subtle but highly considered compositions.

SEBASTIAN Apaestegui
A woman with glasses and brown hair smiling, sitting on a stool and posing with her right arm raised and her left arm extended to the side. She is wearing a white long-sleeve top and light-colored pants, with one leg crossed over the other. Behind her is a white bookshelf with books and bottles, with a colorful embroidered textile hanging above and a small sculpture on top. 
SUZETTE Schutze

Suzzette is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the relationship between humanity and the natural world. Inspired by rural environments, wildlife habitats, and the effects of deforestation, her practice reflects an ongoing interest in environmental systems, interconnectedness, and the passing of time.

Her work embraces experimentation, imperfection, and the unpredictability of materials. Drawn to raw and organic elements, Suzzette approaches making with curiosity and openness, allowing the materials themselves to help shape the final work. Concept, materiality, and the origin of the materials she uses are all deeply connected within her practice.