Marley Freeman

Karma is pleased to present Take Care, a solo exhibition by Marley Freeman. This is Freeman’s second solo show with the gallery.

Working in oil and hand-mixed acrylic, Marley Freeman layers paint to depict abstract forms and veils of color. Rooted in a process of patient revisiting, her complex compositions can take months to complete. Freeman’s paintings eschew rigid rules, oscillating between transparency and opacity, sparseness and density, luminosity and austerity. Glimpses of the representational world thread through her magnetic compositions, in which amorphic shapes become vessels for emotion and personal attachment. Her titles are often excerpted from poetry and fiction, provoking deeper inquiry.

In Ones Former Other One (2022) Freeman adeptly builds up a patchwork of jostling expressive forms: assertive blocks of color intertwine with the fluidity of more gestural brushwork. By contrast, in Earth Anew (2021) washes of dark green and lavender murmur beneath a movement of blue, recalling Helen Frankenthaler’s abstract portraits of spring rain. Rigorously investigating scale, in Tuned to Existence (2021) a small area is charged by subtle layers and tonal shifts. Freeman often likens her compositions to weaving fabric and attributes this influence to her work as a textile dealer and curator for seven years. This situates Freeman’s work between the modalities of abstraction and image-making, dissolving the boundaries of both in the process.

Take Care is the record of Freeman’s ongoing exploration of the expressive capacity of painting. Freeman’s paintings carve out a visual language that embraces dichotomy and synthesis—a friendship fostered with color and form. Along the way, paintings come into existence as evidence of a more thoughtful, vibrant world.

The show is accompanied by a forthcoming catalog featuring newly-commissioned essays by Adjua Gargi Nzinga Greaves, Francesca Wade, and Cathleen Chaffee.