Biography
Anne von Freyburg
Velp, The Netherlands, 1979
Lives and works in London, UK
Anne von Freyburg’s practice rethinks textile and the decorative within the tradition of painting. It embraces and subverts the female gaze, the feminine and pretty. Historically, craft and decoration have been perceive as lesser than the “intellectual” fine arts. By combining them, von Freyburg challenges this underlying hierarchical system.
At the same time, the artist reclaims the female history of textiles, the feminine, the pretty, decoration, the domestic and female nude. “I paint with materials,” observes von Freyburg.
Embellishment has been associated with the feminine, frivolous, and excessive, and was thus repressed within the rhetoric of Modernism. Detailing and fabric were viewed as decorative extras.
von Freyburg recent work translates old masters paintings from the Rococo period into paintings constructed of a mixture of tapestry and contemporary fashion fabrics. With these works von Freyburg attempts to raise questions about taste, femininity, high and low art and the constructs of female identity. Her work is a celebration of the sensual, textural and visual pleasures of materials and ornaments. Besides its visual pleasures it can also be read as a comment on excessive consumerist’s behaviour and self-indulgence.
Through her work, she seeks a renewed significance and meaning of the decorative, detail and fabric while celebrating the feminine. Von Freyburg is part of a group of artists seeking a renewed significance and meaning around crafted materials.
C.V
Exhibitions
2024 ‘Standing on The Shoulders of Giants, Saatchi Gallery London, UK
2024 Debut show, Project Space Kcontemporary Denver, USA
2024 Solo show ‘Papillotage’ HOFA Gallery London, UK
2024 ‘Dream Keepers’ group show Szydlowski Gallery Warsaw, PL
2023 Ki Smith Gallery, NYC, USA
2023 Miniartextile 32 Como, Italy
2023 Eleven Twenty Three, St Bartholomew The Great Church, London
2023 Art Buson Seoul, HOFA Gallery
2023 Art Basel Hongkong, Art Central, HOFA Gallery
2022 Art the Hague Art Fair, o-68 Gallery, Velp NL
2022 Art Miami Art Fair, HOFA Gallery London
2022 Robert Walters UK New Artists Award, Saatchi Gallery London
2022-2023 17th Tapestry Triennial, Centrale Textile Museum in Lodz, PL
2022 ‘Go Figure’ Daniel Raphael Gallery London, (group)
2022 ‘Salon’ Tsivrikos Shake Gallery London, (group)
2022 Duo exhibition with Rinke Nijburg, o-68 Gallery Velp, NL
2022 Group Show, ‘Fragile’ Letrangere Gallery London, UK
2021 Ingram Prize exhibition
2021 End of Residency show PLOP x Cob.gallery, London
2021 ING Discerning Eye Exhibition, Mall Gallery London
2021 Robert Walters UK New Artists Award, Saatchi Gallery London
2021 ‘Focus On The Female’, Cynthia Corbett Gallery, UK
2021 ‘Skin Deep’, Duo exhibition, James Freeman Gallery London, UK
2020 Group show, Zerp Gallery, Rotterdam, NL
2019 Group Show, Zerp Gallery, Rotterdam, NL
2019 Florence Trust Summer Show
2018 ‘Rebel Without A Cause’ Zerp Gallery Rotterdam, NL (solo)
2017 Art Rotterdam 2017, Zerp Gallery, (artfair) NL
2016 Tactile Bosch, Cardiff, Wales UK (group)
2016 Art Gemini Prize, Asia House, London (group)
2014 Houses of Art Marbella Spain (solo)
2013 Zerp Galerie, Rotterdam, Symbiosis, NL (solo)
Education
2014-2016 Master Fine Art, Goldsmiths University of London
1997-2001 Bachelor in Fashion Design, Hogeschool voor de Beeldende kunsten Arnhem, ArtEZ
2014 Ecole Lesage Paris, Haute Couture Embroidery level 1 en 2.
Residency
2018-2019 Florence Trust Residency London 2021 PLOP x Cob. Winter Residency
Competitions
2021 Winner of The Robert Walters UK New Artist Award 2021 Shortlisted Ingram Prize 2020 Shortlisted Jackson’s Painting Prize
2010 Shortlist LICC Award, International Creative Award, London UK
2016 Art Gemini Prize September 2016, London
Grants
2014 Stichting Heij-Konijn Fonds
2014 Stichting Niemeijer Fonds
Publications
Interview with Widewalls
https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/anne-von-freyburg-interview
Article in Not Real Art magazine
https://notrealart.com/anne-von-freyburg/
Feature in Friend of the Artist magazine
https://www.friendoftheartist.com/blogs/anne-von-freyburg
Feature in ArtPlugged magazine
https://artplugged.co.uk/five-exhibitions-to-see-in-london-in-february-2024/
The Standard, The best exhibitions to see this week in London, from Anne von Freyburg to Barbara Kruger. (February 1 to 8)
https://www.instagram.com/p/C2z9l6fogBp/
Interview with Floorr magazine
https://www.floorrmagazine.com/issue-31/anne-von-freyburg
Article: Interview in Arts in Square Magazine.
https://artsinsquare.com/interviews/anne-von-freyburg
Interview with Les Nouveaux Riches Magazine
https://www.les-nouveaux-riches.com/interview-anne-von-freyburg/
Feature in Artists Responding To Magazine, issue 7
Interview with Claire Toole, ‘Friends of the Artist’ magazine, volume 15.
https://www.friendoftheartist.com/volume-15
Artemorbida Textile Arts Magazine, interview, July 2022 nr 08
Create Magazine, contemporary art magazine
New Visionary magazine, nr 06
https://www.visionaryartcollective.com/interviews/anne-von-freyburg?rq=anne%20von%20freyburg
Suboart Magazine, interview, September 2023 issue.
ArtScope Magazine March/April, 2021 Centerfold. US
https://artscopemagazine.com/centerfolds/march-april-2021-centerfold/
Artforum, mention of exhibition ‘Skin Deep’ James Freeman Gallery London.
Embroidery, The Textile Art Magazine, May June 2021, One to watch.
Art Plugged, Anne von Freyburg x Nigel Grimmer ‘Skin Deep’
https://artplugged.co.uk/anne-von-freyburg-subverts-the-female-gaze-the-feminine-and-the-pretty/
Art Verge, interview, untitled after Boucher
https://art-verge.com/anne-von-freyburg-untitled-after-boucher/
Textiel Plus magazine, Mixed Media, Spring issue 65, 2021, highlight artist
Decorating Dissidence article
https://decoratingdissidence.com/2021/02/08/anne-von-freyburg/
Textile Art Magazine, interview, 2021
https://www.textile-art-magazine.com/portraits-interviews/interview-mit-der-textilkuenstlerin-anne-von-freyburg/
The Flux Review 2021, Q&A
Pan and the Dream, US https://www.panandthedream.com/blogs/art/untitled-after-boucher-by-anne-von-freyburg
Textile Curator, interview
https://www.textilecurator.com/home-default/home-2-2/anne-von-freyburg/
Juxtapoz Magazine, Paintings by Anne von Freyburg https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/painting/paintings-by-anne-von-freyburg/
Blanc Magazine https://blancmagazine.com/art-culture/art/annevonfreyburg/
Art Viewer, Selection of works at Art Rotterdam, 2017
Creative Boom, six emerging artists to watch in 2017 https://www.creativeboom.com/inspiration/six-emerging-artists-to-watch-in-2017-/