MARY SALEH / GOLDCOASTMARY

Her artistic practice is shaped by a life lived across cultures and continents. Time spent along Australia’s sun-drenched Gold Coast and within the vibrant, ever-shifting energy of Berlin has left a lasting imprint on her visual language, informing a sensibility attuned to culture, rhythm and atmosphere. Music plays a central role in this context, acting as both a unifying force and a carrier of memory.

Growing up in Germany during the 1990s, her visual and emotional vocabulary was deeply influenced by music, lyrics and youth culture. School environments were defined by distinct identities and social circles shaped by sound and style, from grunge and metal to rap, soul, and the early house and techno scenes. These cultural codes continue to resonate throughout her work.

The act of repetition carries a formative reference, recalling the ritual of writing lines as a form of discipline, widely known from popular culture through Bart Simpson’s classroom punishments. In her work, this gesture is recontextualised. What once functioned as correction becomes affirmation, reflection and, at times, quiet contradiction.

Her early series can be understood as an homage to the pioneers of rap and spoken rhythm, including artists such as Ice Cube and Grandmaster Flash, whose work helped establish new forms of lyrical expression and narrative voice. At the same time, her references extend beyond genre, embracing timeless compositions such as The Girl from Ipanema, reinterpreted through the lens of her own travels, including a recent stay in Rio de Janeiro.

Today, based in Zurich, GoldCoastMary creates paintings and text works that explore memory, music and shared cultural references, translating personal experiences into contemporary visual narratives. Moving between abstraction and text, her work reflects on identity, nostalgia and the emotions carried by songs, places and collective memories.