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Marley Freeman

Marley Freeman (b. 1981, Lynn, Massachusetts) uses oils as well as hand-mixed gesso and acrylic to create meticulous, psychologically charged color fields. Working primarily in the medium of painting, Freeman studies the ways in which the material “wants to perform,” resulting in multisensorial investigations of color and light. Her distinct vocabulary of forms is made up of brushy strokes, color washes, and shapes that freely transform across the picture plane. The influence of the material history of textile production on the artist is evident in her close attention to the textural subtleties of her paints and her reverence for their surface effects. Freeman lives between New York and Massachusetts.

Freeman’s work can be found in the collections of the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island; San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas; University of Colorado Art Museum, Bolder and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Marley Freeman, 2018. Courtesy Sarah Rice, The New York Times, Redux

Marley Freeman, 2018. Courtesy Sarah Rice, The New York Times, Redux

Born 1981, Lynn, Massachusetts
Lives in New York

EDUCATION

2011

MFA, Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts at Bard College, New York

2008

BFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

2006

Burren College of Art, Advanced Studio, Ireland

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2025

Karma, New York, no when

2023

Parker Gallery, Los Angeles, elbow fist to make

2022

Karma, New York, take care

2021

Travesía Cuatro, Guadalajara, Mexico, 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

PSM, Berlin, Never Give a Sword to a Man Who Can’t Dance

2016

Porcino, Berlin, Postcards for Porcino

Gallery MoAB, Brooklyn, Freeman/Kreher

2015

Cleopatra’s, Brooklyn, Decision 2015 (I Change)

2014

Triangle Arts 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, New Works on Brooklyn

2005

Fringe, New York, with Ali Beletic

Selected Group Exhibitions

2025

Olivia Foundation, Mexico City, Woman in a Rowboat

2024

Dunes, Portland, Maine, with Night Gallery, The Wrong Sea

70 Main Street, Thomaston, Maine, A Particular Kind of Heaven

Peter Blum Gallery, New York, The Shape of Color

James Fuentes, New York, A Study in Form (Chapter Two), curated by Arden Wohl

Adams and Ollman, Portland, Oregon, Ruined Windows, with Jessica Jackson Hutchins

2023

Karma Bookstore, New York, Miniatures, with Lukas Geronimas

Halsey McKay Gallery, East Hampton, New York, The Glass Show, curated by David Kennedy Cutler

70 Main Street, Thomaston, Maine, Kathy Butterly, Lynne Drexler, and Marley Freeman

Parker Gallery, Los Angeles, Wishing Well

2022

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New Abstracts

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 Space, Houston, Nancy Shaver: Copper and Propane

dépendance, Brussels, L’évidence éternelle

2021

wall space please, 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 Liddel

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, Brooklyn, Onion by the Ocean

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

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 at Knockdown Center, Queens, Initial Contractions

Signal, Brooklyn, This 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

Gallery, Brooklyn, Rainbows Have Nothing to Hide

2012

University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, Significant Ordinaries

Goethe-Institut at New York Public Library, How Can a Digital be a Gift? 

Franklin Street Works, Stanford, Connecticut, House Arrest, curated by Terri C. Smith

2011

Hunter College, New York, Play it Again, curated by ACE Curatorial Collective

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

Public Collections

Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California

Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island

San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas

University of Colorado Art Museum, Bolder

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Publications

2024

Kathy Butterly, Lynne Drexler, Marley Freeman

Karma, New York

2022

Marley Freeman

Karma, New York

(Nothing but) Flowers

Karma, New York

2020

Alvaro Barrington, Dike Blair, Marley Freeman, Zenzaburo Kojima
Karma, New York

2019

Park Closes at Midnight
Karma, New York

Nature of the Difficulties
Karma, New York

2015

Interiors: Decisions 2015 (I change)

Cleopatra’s Books

News