Gabriel Mercio is a painter whose studio practice centers around landscape painting, often depicting Brazilian scenes. His art also considers the tensions between illusion and materiality in painting, in dialogue with the historical conventions of the medium.

His subjects are specific details from his life in Brazil, drawn from plein-air sketches, personal photographs, and art historical references. His work often features nuanced textures, such as bodies of water and deep foliage.

Gabriel’s work investigates the trope of landscape painting as a window, something transparent that carries the viewer from an interior space to the outside world. In response to this theme, he frequently paints in translucent glazes, using acrylic paint and gel mediums in overlapping layers. He creates a variety of textures through additive marks made with brushes and pastels, as well as subtractive marks made with wood-carving tools and rags. These techniques leave a layered history of process and time embedded within each work.

By emphasizing touch and process in these ways, Mercio aims to explore the tension between the painting as an object and the painting as a crafted illusion. Through this dynamic, his artworks shorten distances, resisting the convention of the subject as an "outside," whether physically or culturally. Ultimately, his practice involves continual negotiation, seeking a balance between the glimmer of illusion and the sincerity of lived experience.