Marley Freeman
Marley Freeman (b. 1981, Lynn, MA) is a New York-based artist who combines the disciplines of abstract and representational painting. Her unique facture is characterized by the hand-mixed gesso, acrylic, and oils she uses to create meticulous, psychologically-charged color fields. Through this technical process, she studies the ways in which paint “wants to perform.” “Pigments have their own ways of acting,” Freeman says, “and I became obsessed with learning their traits.” Freeman’s distinct vocabulary of forms is made up of brushy strokes, color washes, and shapes that freely transform across the picture plane. The influence of textile design is evident in her close attention to the textural subtleties of her paints, and her reverence for their surface effects—their impressions in the warp and weft of the canvas.
Freeman completed her MFA at the Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts at Bard College, New York, and her BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work can be found in the collections of the Whitney Museum of Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio; the RISD Museum, Providence; and the University of Colorado Art Museum, Boulder.
Recent solo exhibitions include Karma, New York (2022); Travesía Cuatro, Guadalajara (2021); Parker Gallery, Los Angeles (2020); Karma, New York (2019); Janice Guy at MBnb, New York (2018); PSM, Berlin (2017); and Cleopatra’s, New York (2015), among others.
Freeman’s work is currently on view in New Abstracts at LACMA in Los Angeles.
Photo: Sarah Rice, The New York Times, 2018
Born 1981, Boston, Massachusetts
Lives and works in New York
EDUCATION
2011
MFA, The Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts at Bard College, New York
2008
BFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
2007
New York Studio Program (Spring), New York
2006
Burren College of Art, Study Abroad Advanced Studio, Ireland
Selected Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions
2023
Parker Gallery, Los Angeles, elbow fist to make
2022
Karma, New York, take care
2021
Travesía Cuatro, Guadalajara, Happy Living Things
2020
Parker Gallery, Los Angeles, Why I’m Turning My Key
2019
Karma, New York, Park Closes at Midnight
2018
Janice Guy at MBnb Project Space, New York, Speechless
Parker Gallery, Los Angeles, Californienne
2017
Downstairs Projects, Brooklyn, Marley Freeman
PSM, Berlin, Never Give a Sword to a Man Who Can’t Dance
2016
Chert/Porcino, Berlin, Postcards for Porcino; organized by David Horvitz
MoAB, Brooklyn, Freeman/Kreher
2015
Cleopatra’s, Brooklyn, Decision 2015 (I Change)
2014
Triangle Art Association, Brooklyn, Syntagma: Painting as Event
2013
Kansas Gallery, New York, Carey Dennison/Marley Freeman
2011
This Must Be the Place, Brooklyn, Reading Boyishly, with Corrine Fitzpatrick
2006
Chicago Hot Glass, Chicago, New Works on Brooklyn
2005
Fringe, New York, Two-Person Show with Ali Beletic
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022-23
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, New Abstracts
2022
Dunes, Portland, A Window is Also a Wall
47 Canal, New York, Impressions of the Fall
8th house projects and Deli Gallery, Mexico City, The Fool
F, Houston, Nancy Shaver Copper and Propane
dépendance, Brussels, L’évidence éternelle
2021
WALLSPACEPLEASE, Dubai, Bad Girls
Venus Over Manhattan, New York, The Interior
2020
Nassima-Landau Project, Tel Aviv, High Voltage
Karma, New York, (Nothing but) Flowers
Parts & Labor, Beacon, New York, My Way: The Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers and Contemporary Abstraction
Public Art Fund, New York, 50 Artists: Art on the Grid
2019
Gordon Robichaux, New York, Nobody’s World; curated by Siobhan Liddell
2017
Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin, Monday is a Day Between Sunday and Tuesday; curated by Lisa Offermann
2016
Murray Guy, New York, What Ever Moves Between Us Also Moves The World In General; curated by Sonel Breslav
PSM, Berlin, A Summer Painting Show; organized by Cleopatra’s and Aaron Bogart
Underdonk Gallery, Brooklyn, Onion by the Ocean
The New School, New York, Syntagma; curated by Natasha Lorens
2015
Lactation Room, Museum of Modern Art, New York, MaMA Cubicle; (unofficial project) curated by Zanna Gilbert
White Room, White Columns, New York, CCCC: Ceramics Club Cash & Carry (as Ceramics Club)
Underdonk Gallery, Brooklyn, Nuff Said
245 Varet FKA/AKA Wildlife, Brooklyn, Four Options
Artiz Group, New York, Jumping the Line
2014
Franklin Street Works, New York, About Like So: The Influence of Painting
Cleopatra’s, Brooklyn, Canaries
Bed, Brooklyn, A Body for the Bedroom
Jane Hatsook Gallery, New York, Ceramics Club Pop Up
2013
Visitation and Reanimation Library Knockdown Center, Queens, Initial Contractions
Signal, Brooklyn, The is the Prism the Spider Dreams of as it Weaves its Web; curated by Benjamin Horns
Fruit and vegetable stand, Queens, Fruit and Vegetable Stand; organized by Paul Branca
247365, Brooklyn, Spread it On: Travis Boyer, Matthew Fischer, Marley Freeman; curated by Jesse Greenberg and Macgregor Harp
Gallleryy, Brooklyn, Rainbows Have Nothing to Hide
2012
The University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, Significant Ordinaries
Goethe-Institut, New York Public Library, New York, How Can a Digital be a Gift?
An Impossible Distance, curated by David Horvitz
Franklin Street Works, Stanford, Connecticut, House Arrest; curated by Terri C. Smith
James Fuentes Gallery for VIP Art Fair, New York, Favorite Brooklyn Based Painters
2011
Hunter College, New York, Play it Again, curated by ACE curatorial collective
Columbia University, New York, Exprist: outdoor painting show, curated by Jessie Greenberg
Moving Truck, Brooklyn, Street Trash, curated by Virginia Overton
Vaudeville Park, Brooklyn, One Night Show, curated by Leigh Ruple
2010
West Den Haag, Netherlands, Carry On, organized by David Horvitz
MFA Thesis exhibition, Milton Avery School of the Arts at Bard College, New York, How to Change a Tire
2008
Contemporary Art Workshop, Chicago, summer group show
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, BFA Thesis show
2007
New York Studio Program, New York, Crystal Slippage
2006
New Haven open studios, New Haven, Connecticut, Moxi
Public Collections
RISD Museum, Providence
San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio
Whitney Museum of Art, New York
University of Colorado Art Museum, Bolder
Public Projects
2020
Public Art Fund, New York, 50 Artists: Art on the Grid
Publications
2020
Alvaro Barrington, Dike Blair, Marley Freeman, Zenzaburo Kojima
Texts by Jim Lewis, Tim Griffin, Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer
Karma, New York
54 pages, softcover
11 × 8 1/2 inches
Edition of 500
2019
Park Closes at Midnight
Karma, New York
64 pages, hardcover
10 1/2 × 8 1/4 inches
Edition of 750
Nature of the Difficulties
Karma, New York
64 pages, hardcover
4 1/2 × 5 3/4 inches
Edition of 500
