About Alex DiMercurio
I’m a Wellington-based artist currently focused on creating immersive, textural abstract cloud and seascapes.
My work explores the emotional resonance of light, movement, and shifting colour. Capturing the dramatic energy of a clouded sky and its reflection over water through bold palette knife strokes and fluid brushwork.
Each painting is built with intention, where every mark and colour choice is carefully placed to create harmony, depth, and a contemplative visual experience.
Using a variety of tools and techniques, I sculpt structure from ethereal, formless elements. Allowing refracted light, soft hues, and bold texture to coexist in a delicate balance.
Collectors often describe my paintings as having a levitating presence on the wall, offering shifting perspectives whether viewed up close or from a distance.
Although I’m best known for my earlier series of vivid, award-winning tree-scapes. Capturing the dynamic interplay of shadow, colour, and nature’s interconnectedness, my recent work takes that same energy upward, into open clouded skies and sweeping oceanic forms.
My more recent works are less about place in the literal sense, and more about the emotional landscapes we carry with us.
At the heart of my practice is a deep obsession with connection. Our connection to nature, to each other, and to ourselves.
Having lived across continents and moved many times throughout my life, I’ve developed a sensitivity to the way we seek belonging, identity, and stillness amidst change.
This sense of transience and rootedness coexisting is something I return to again and again in my work. The vastness of the sky and the ever-changing sea hold the same duality. Fleeting yet eternal, grounded yet untethered.
Our very existence is bound to them, and each other.
Through my art, I hope to offer a sense of stillness and reconnection. Whether to a memory, a moment, or a part of yourself you’d forgotten.
I want to honour the beauty in the ephemeral, those quiet seconds of a glowing horizon or the weightlessness of standing beneath a vast breathtaking sky.
Ultimately, my work is a visual dialogue between time and place, encouraging pause, presence, and a deeper awareness of the world around, and within us.
From the beginning
Having a Parisian artist mother, I was immersed in a world of celebrated art and museums from a young age. I vividly recall standing in awe before Claude Monet's 'Waterlilies' at Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris, an early personal inspiration. Painting and creativity has since consumed and inspired me. From early beginnings as an art student I was hand-picked to have paintings exhibited at The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, in 1990. Later on, my second group exhibition held at Saatchi & Saatchi's 5 Stories High gallery was a sold-out success, motivating me to pursue my dream of becoming a full-time artist.
I've since enjoyed a prolific artistic career, exhibiting in galleries and group shows, creating commissioned works for both national & international clients, and gaining recognition in publications and national Art Awards.
More recently
However my artistic career was put on hold while I embarked on a transformative five-year journey of adventure with my dog and husband. Backpacking South America, touring Europe in a motorhome, and then sailing around the Mediterranean in a catamaran.
Getting hit by lightening quickly put an end to our grand sailing plans of circumnavigating the world! Everyone was quite happy to have their feet on solid ground again...
Despite limited space and no art studio during this period, I channeled my creativity into small watercolour works, inspired by the ever-changing world around me. Ironically it was always New Zealand's pristine nature and skies that I longed to paint.
Having moved back home to Wellington after the Covid pandemic in 2022, I now have my lovely studio and my creative space back again. I'm overflowing with inspiration from an incredible amount of experiences and exposure to life I never thought possible.
I’ve learnt along the way that being creative and communicating my ideas, emotions and passions through painting is what nourishes me, and I'm excited for this next chapter of living my best creative life!
Welcome to my studio
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My playground
A light and airy creative space. The sun streams into this little haven in the mornings. Inviting me in to get started with a cup of tea in hand and my music playing. Usually my little fur-buddy Millau comes to see what I'm doing. He really is the best company and being a chihuahua, hardly takes up any space!
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A place for my tools
I've always dreamed of displaying all my paints like you see in the art stores. No more digging in boxes looking for that one specific colour! And when I am concepting an idea I also get to daydream out onto my garden of lush native trees while listening to birdlife.
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In the moment
I'm usually working on several pieces at a time so things can get messy. When I need a break from the intense concentration of a larger canvas I play and experiment on smaller works. Usually thinking about colour palettes or techniques I need to work on. This is where I have a lot of fun. Anything goes!
Education
I graduated from Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand in 2002, and have more recently studied fine arts at private art schools in Montmartre, Paris and Cannes.
Notably, in 2019 I had the privilege of working within the historic faculty residence of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec where he first met Suzanne Valadon. His friend Vincent van Gogh would often frequent and share this very art studio. Montmartre's legacy as Paris’ creative hub is remarkable. Other renowned figures such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pablo Picasso, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir shaped its artistic landscape. To engage with this amazing heritage, soak up the atmosphere and walk the same winding, cobbled streets of such incredible artistic legends while also realising my lifelong artistic aspirations was a profound experience.
During my six-month residency in Paris, I also devoted myself to weekly visits at the Louvre, which is a treasure-trove of art history. And where I engaged myself in intensive drawing and immersive study sessions alongside the masters of classical, neo-classical, Hellenistic, Renaissance, and Baroque art.
2020 Association des beaux-arts de Cannes, France.
2019 Studio Escalier, Montmatre, Paris, France.
2010-2013 Inverlochy Art School, Wellington.
1998-2002 Bachelor of Commerce (BCom), Massey University, Wellington.
1991 Visual Communication and Design, Massey University, Wellington
AWARDS
2024 NZ Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington, Autumn - Award Winner
2009 NZAFF Affordable Art Show, Wellington - Signature Award Piece Finalist
2009 National Drawing Award Finalist
2006 Telecom Art Awards, NZ Finalist
Exhibitions
