Gonzalo Varela is an Argentinian multidisciplinary visual artist with a degree in Fine Arts from the National University of La Plata, Buenos Aires. After graduating, he spent a decade in Barcelona and fifteen years in Australia. Six years ago, he settled in Fish Creek, South Gippsland, where he currently lives and works.

His artistic practice is deeply rooted in painting, though he also explores muralism and sculpture. Over the years, he has ventured into the world of puppetry, winning the Green Room Award for Best Puppet Show in 2018, and into writing, with some of his short stories published in "A Voz Limpia" an anthology of Latin American writers in Melbourne. These disciplines have provided him with alternative ways to express his storytelling impulse.

In his creative process, Varela carefully considers the temperature of colors, the creation of depth, and how a "happy accident" can disrupt the harmony of a composition.

He defines himself as a slow-cooking creator, valuing the dialogue with his work and embracing both the battle and the dance with it. For him, the creative process is what truly matters. Not a race to the finish line. He sees his paintings as a natural outcome of the act of making.

Restless and ambitious by nature, he refuses to be trapped by the echo of a good idea or the repetition of a successful formula. He prefers to open doors fearlessly, even if he sometimes forgets to close them.

Gonzalo Varela’s works are part of private and public collections in Argentina, Spain, the United States, Germany and Australia.