Parker Gallery is pleased to present Californienne, a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Marley Freeman. The exhibition includes works in oil and acrylic installed in a specific arrangement throughout the upstairs exhibition space. The title of the exhibition refers to a homecoming of sorts, described in a foreign tongue from afar. This is Freeman’s first solo exhibition in Southern California, where she grew up.

Marley Freeman spent a good portion of her childhood visiting antique shows with her father, an antique textile dealer. Her first job entailed organizing a design library for a textile mill stretching back five generations, a task she describes as an excellent education in looking. When Freeman left textiles to focus full-time on painting she had cultivated a unique perspective toward image-making.

There is an implicit architecture to the paintings: built of layers separated by varying degrees of opacity and luster, applied in deep pools and wispy sweeps of color. The tones are so specific they feel familiar, even to the viewer discovering her palette for the first time. The paintings present a singular approach to abstraction that remains suspended between image and action.

She guides her work towards a particular moment when a surprising apparition of odd shapes and textures just begins to reveal itself. Her paintings enjoy an intimate logic, as if they have come to some secret understanding. While the works are abstract, the imagery is almost recognizable, if barely beyond reach. Over the past seven months, Freeman has been painting on an island off the coast of Maine; her new works reflect the crisp light and vibrant color of the iconic landscape, while eluding naturalistic representation.

Marley Freeman (b. 1981 in Boston, MA, currently working in Down East, ME). Select solo exhibitions include Downstairs Projects, Brooklyn, NY (2017), Never Give a Sword to a Man Who Can’t Dance, PSM, Berlin, Germany (2017), Postcards for Porcino, organized by David Horvitz, Chert/Porcino, Berlin, Germany (2016), Decision 2015 (I Change), Cleopatra’s, Brooklyn, NY (2015) and Syntagma: Painting as Event, Triangle Art Association, Brooklyn, NY (2014). Select group exhibitions include Monday is a Day Between Sunday and Tuesday, Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2017), What Ever Moves Between Us Also Moves the World in General, Murray Guy, New York, NY (2017), Onion by the Ocean, Underdonk, Brooklyn, NY (2017), MaMa Cubicle, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2015), Ceramic Club Cash & Carry, White Columns, New York, NY (2015) and Significant Ordinaries, California State University Art Museum, Long Beach, CA (2012).