Australian Women Artists

The podcast

Ep 84 Chelsea Gustafsson

Chelsea Gustafsson is an artist whose work invites us to look closer at the quiet, often overlooked items of our daily lives—transforming mass-produced objects, ornaments, and domestic clutter into highly detailed, deeply metaphorical still lifes.

Her paintings are incredibly beautiful, but they also carry a sharp undercurrent of modern anxiety, apathy, and ecological grief.

From her early beginnings influenced by 3D sculptors to painting on her dining table, Chelsea has built a formidable practice that has seen her work acquired by the City of Melbourne, celebrated as a finalist in the prestigious Kennedy Prize, and exhibited internationally in Berlin. And very recently, she was selected for the celebrated Salon des Refusés at the S.H. Ervin Gallery.

“I like to play with objects and textures that don’t necessarily sit well together naturally. Through the process of constructing items into a sculptural form and twisting or balancing them to find their sweet spot for a composition and watching how the light falls and reflects across them, they begin to gel as a single form and a beauty emerges.”

Head to my bio and follow the link to our podcast conversation...or search Australian Women Artists wherever you find your podcasts.

Chelsea is represented by:

Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne

Penny Contemporary, Hobart

Michael Reid Berlin

Images

1. CG supplied by artist

2. Self Portrait, 2026, Oil on board (all works on these images are OOB) 30 x 40

3. Lobster, 2025, 15 x 20

4. Surfcoast Highway, 2019, 15 x 20

5. Mint, 2020, 40 x 50

6. Tasmanian Tigers, 2024 22 x 30

7. Trophy 01, 2022, 15 x 20