18 feet high and rising: The artistic evolution of Elizabeth Munzón

Long Beach is known for its community-driven art, both plastered in public spaces across the city and painstakingly curated in independent galleries. 

Elizabeth Munzón, a Long Beach local, was one of many artists who painted murals during this year’s edition of the festival. She has been a mainstay in the city’s gallery scene for nearly a decade. But last month, Munzón’s work reached new heights — about 18 feet to be exact. 

Growing up, she remembers painting as early as kindergarten. 

Munzón said she realized she had a talent for the arts in first grade when she saw a lizard outside and drew it from memory.

“I went back into the classroom and everyone was like, ‘Draw me one! Draw me one!’” she said. She indulged her classmates, and eventually her teacher, who asked her to draw the lizard on the chalkboard for the entire class.

In the years following, Munzón considered art only a hobby. She didn’t consider it a career option until she was attending Long Beach City College in 2008.

During that time, she began discovering art magazines such as Jusxtapoz Magazine and Hi-Frutose, which were partially responsible for her last-minute decision to switch to a painting and drawing major at Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) in 2013.

“I was like, ‘You know what, I don’t know what I want to do with this. I’m winging it, but I know I just want to keep painting and I’ll figure it out,’” she said. 

Munzón’s focus early in her career was identity and pre-Hispanic histories and mythologies, gaining inspiration from Mexico City and her cousin’s knowledge of Aztec gods. 

“It’s cool to see how things are preserved and how the history is so visible within the city and that’s what probably got me interested in [pre-Hispanic histories and mythologies] … and [it] helped me feel a connection with my cultural heritage,” she said.

She remembers going on a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, and seeing a woman selling paintings on tree bark paper, which helped her find a topic for her college body of work and fueled her interest in her culture’s myths and mythology. 

Upon graduating from CSULB in 2017, she co-founded the Flatline Art Gallery with artist Cynthia Luján. At the time, she was also a marketing intern for the Arts Council in Long Beach and in 2019, they offered her a job as an Arts Education Program Associate.

A few months later, she made the difficult decision to quit her job with the council. 

“I loved working with the Arts Council but at the same time that I graduated, I ended up finding a storefront that worked as my studio, because I was working in my living room,” Munzón said. “I felt like I had to leave my job and fully focus on it [her commercial art galleries].” 

The COVID-19 pandemic happened soon after, which at first made her nervous for the path she chose, but the chance to slow down eventually helped Munzón learn how to balance owning a gallery and continuing to work on her own art. 

At this time, she also took on the responsibility as the solo director for Flatline Gallery. The gallery continued until September 2022, when it closed its North Long Beach location and transitioned into Munzón Gallery.

Munzón said she wanted to level up her gallery and be more ambitious with exhibitions, which inspired her to rebrand and start fresh. 

Over the past few years, her art has focused on paintings of people and family members such as “Happy Birthday, Edgar,” “El Cenzontle mi Mamà” and her self-portrait “Throne of Maguey.”

The Munzón Gallery focuses on painting and printmaking, showcasing emerging artists, rental studio space, workshops and exhibitions. 

In late 2025, Long Beach Walls reached out to Munzón about painting a mural inside Cesar Chavez Elementary School. 

While she was always intimidated by murals, Munzón said she felt it was the perfect time (with the support of Long Beach Walls) to accomplish her first large-scale mural. 

“I wasn’t expecting such a huge wall; it was definitely a transition [and there] was a learning curve to it,” Munzón said. “Working with paint that dries faster and also working in the elements takes a toll on your energy … I had to figure out how to achieve what I was imagining with something that dries and flows completely different on oil paint.”

Munzón decided to do something plant-focused [plants, poppies and butterflies] since she felt like plants were the subject matter to paint because it was her first mural.

“I wanted to pick plants that were symbolic of the location and also culturally significant,” Munzón said. “With the cactus and the Nopales, those I feel like being Mexican-American, we all recognize those right away … I feel like all three represent natural elements that are resilient to certain obstacles and things that come around their path.”

She’s recently focused more on familial bonds and her family home within her artwork. 

“The longer I’ve been away from home and my parents, the more I get nostalgic for my home I grew up in,” Munzón said. “I’ve just been recently looking back at moments of hanging out with my parents and I think I’ve incorporated a lot of my mom’s garden and elements of my home.”

Munzón is currently taking a break from exhibitions, focusing on bringing her inventory up to speed and resetting as she prepares for the next body of work. 

She said she is working on a few pieces for a few shows later in the year and she’ll be opening her studio (1730 E Anaheim St., Unit A) during the Long Beach Open Studio Tour on Oct. 17-18 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 

To keep up with Munzón, follow her on Instagram and to purchase her art, check out munzongallery.com.