“My paintings and drawings incorporate elements found in architecture, design, popular culture and art history. My reductive compositions and pure color mimic the low-tech graphics utilized in mid-century media, while also alluding to color field paintings of the1960s. I utilize tape to mask out shapes and create hardedge stencil-like forms. The process acknowledges early screen printing techniques as well as cubism and collage.

My recent multicolored paintings and drawings are made with oil paint stained on linen and with gouache on handmade paper. I create irregular hand drawn shapes that lay flat and abut at the edges. The curves and irregularities of the edges accentuate the space between, reading both as line and structure. Shapes and colors are rendered intuitively, with one choice informing the next, always mindful of the interplay of negative and positive space.

When applying oil paint to linen and gouache to handmade paper, I try to retain and accentuate the inherent properties of both mediums, the weave and tooth of the linen, the variants in the handmade paper and the pure saturated color of the paint. This direct tactile approach celebrates the details in the forms, the beauty of singular color and the power in simplicity.”

Joanne Freeman earned her bachelor’s degree in fine art from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and her master’s degree in studio art from New York University. She is a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and has exhibited her work across the United States and internationally. Freeman’s work is minimalist, focused on abstract forms and bold colors, and she currently lives and works in New York.

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Website
https://www.joannefreeman.net/