Works by Joanne Freeman
Joanne Freeman is an American abstract painter who creates minimalist reductive paintings and works on paper, featuring hard edged abstract forms and bold, vivid, gestural markings. She lives and works in New York City.
Education
Freeman attended the University of Wisconsin, where she earned a B.S. in Fine Arts in 1976. She earned her M.A. in Studio Art from New York University in 1981. She has taught painting and drawing at NYU and The New School for Social Research and worked as a visiting artist and lecturer at The New York Studio School and the Massachusetts College of Art.
Technique
The American artist paints with gouache on Khadi, a handmade Indian paper fashioned from long fibered cotton. Her oeuvre is exemplified by vivid colors, geometric shapes, hard edge lines, and curved, gestural marks painted against white backgrounds. Freeman presents a reductive visual language that references urban symbols and signs, architectural patterns, and the interplay between shadow and light.
Freeman's process involves taping off areas to create hard edges, and combining those areas of control with spontaneous mark making. The scale of her works and the marks she creates are both dictated by the extent of her physical reach. The resulting images express physicality, emotion, limitation and randomness, combined with a precise, minimalist aesthetic.
Inspiration
Freeman is heavily influenced by the ideas of the Bauhaus School, which emphasized combining the ideas and techniques of art, architecture and design. She endeavors to present new forms in a simple way.
The artist also influenced by Mid-Century modern graphic design aesthetics. The hard edge look of many of her images references well-defined shadows created by sunlight on buildings. She's an admirer of the work of reductive artists such as Ellsworth Kelly, Paul Feeley, and Kenneth Noland.
Collections
Her striking pieces are included in numerous corporate collections, including those of The Prudential, Readers Digest, and the University of Maine Museum of Art, and private collections including those of Gail Stavitsky, the Curator of Collections and Exhibitions for the Montclair Art Museum, and Andy Summers, guitarist for the band The Police.
Exhibitions
Freeman has exhibited her amazing paintings extensively in galleries and museums, in solo and group exhibitions, throughout the US and internationally. The artist's solo show entitled Recent Paintings and Drawings was on display at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, NY, in February 2016. Her art has been reviewed in ARTnews and The New York Observer.
Solo Exhibitions
2018
Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, My Generation, NY. NY.
2016
Kathryn Markel Fine Arts , NY. NY.
2015
490 Gallery, Brooklyn NY.
2013
University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor M e.
2012
Gallery Ehva, Provincetown, Mass
2008
Lohin Geduld Gallery NY. NY.
2005
Lohin Geduld Gallery NY. NY.
2005
Au 9 Galerie D'art, Casablanca, Morocco
2004
Repetition & Change , Joanne Freeman, Gerri Rachins, Brant Gallery, Mass.College of Art , Boston , Mass.
1992
Bess Cutler Gallery, Santa Monica, California.
1991
Bess Cutler Gallery, NY. NY.
1990
Marc Jancou Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
1989
Bess Cutler Gallery, NY. NY.
1988
The Queens Museum, Flushing, NY.
1986
Hudson Gallery, NY. NY.
1984
White Columns, NY. NY.
1981
Just Above Midtown/Downtown, NY. NY.
Group Exhibitions
2018
Art on Paper, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, Pier 36, NY. NY.
2017
International Fine Print Dealers Association, NY. NY.
The 34th Annual Fine Print Fair, Cleveland, Ohio (juror's choice award)
Just Under 100, New Prints Summer 2017 International Print Center, NY.
2016
Art on Paper, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, Pier 36, NY. NY.
Color, Shape and Form III , Gallery Gris, Hudson , NY
50 Shades of Red, Herter Gallery, University of Massachusetts , Amherst , Mass.
2015
Formal Aspects, Visual Dialogue in Structure , Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis , Mass.
A few Conversations About Color, dm c ontemporary NYC , NY.
Paperazzi, Janet Kurnatowski Gallery , Brooklyn, NY.
Sideshow Nation, Sideshow Gallery , Brooklyn, NY.
2014
Familiar LIne , Key Projects, Queens , NY.
Color, Shape and Form, Galerie Gris, Hudson NY.
2013
Wit, The Painting Center, NY. NY. Curator: Joanne Freeman
2012
Maine, Bogart Salon, Bushwick, NY.
Instructors Show , The School House Gallery, Provincetown, Mass.
Paperazzi , Janet Kurnatowski Gallery, Brooklyn NY
2011
Paper , Janet Kurnatowski Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.
2010
Color - Time - Space, Rosenberg Gallery, Ca lkins Hall, Hofstra University, Hempstead NY. Curators: Joanne Freeman and Kim Uchiyama
2009
Color - Time - Space , Janet Kurnatowski Gallery, Brooklyn NY. Curators: Joanne Freeman, Kim Uchiyama
Color - Time - Space , Lohin Geduld Gallery, NY. NY. Curators: Joanne Freeman, Kim Uchiyama
2009
Drawing Atlas, Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, Lancaster, PA .
2008
Drawing Atlas , Lohin Geduld Gallery, NY. NY.
Masur Museum of Art, Munro La.
Selections, Lohin Geduld Gallery NY. NY.
2007
Summer Group Show, Lohin Geduld Gallery, NY. NY.
2006
Neo Plastic Redux, Elizabeth Harris Gallery, NY. NY.
Contemporary Art Month, San Antonio TX.
Jack the Pelican, Brooklyn NY.
2005
Mod , Broadway Gallery, NY. NY.
Made in the USA, Pickled Art Gallery, Beijing , China
2001
History Lessons, Aramona Studio, NY. NY.
2000
One on One , Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, Mass.
1992
Persistence of Painting, Varieties of Vision , Kohn Pederson, Fox Gallery, NY. NY.
1990
Auction for Action Act Up New York , Paula Cooper Gallery, NY. NY.
Benefit Auction , The New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY. NY.
1989
Gallery Artists, Bess Cutler Gallery, NY. NY.
American Pie, Bess Cutler Gallery, NY. NY.
Seibu Department Store, Tokyo, Japan (catalogue)
1988
Gold Show , Minor Injury, Brooklyn, NY.
1986
Hudson Gallery, NY. NY
1985
Nite Show , Public Image Gallery, NY.
Shifting Views ,B.A.C.A. Downtown, Brooklyn, NY.
Update 84 - 85 , White Columns, NY. NY.
1984
Art Against Apartheid , ABC No Rio, NY. NY.
Four Artists, Soho Center for the Visual Arts, NY NY.
1983
Christminster Fine Art, NY. NY.
1982
Hot, Gracie Mansion Gallery, NY. NY.