Marley Freeman Portrait by Sarah Rice, The New York Times

Marley Freeman 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. Freeman’s work can be found in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York; RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island; the San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas; and the Colorado University Art Museum, Bolder, Colorado.

Marley Freeman, tuned to existence, 2021, Oil and acrylic on linen, 8⅛ x 9⅛ inches; 20.65 x 23.19 cm, 9¼ x 10¼ inches; 23.5 x 26 cm (framed)

Marley Freeman, a self area, 2021, Oil and acrylic on linen, 54 x 54⅛ inches; 137.2 x 137.5 cm, 54¾ x 54⅞ inches; 139.1 x 139.4 cm (framed)