Installation view of Freya Douglas-Morris: This star I give to you (October 18-November 18, 2023) at Alexander Berggruen, NY. Photo: Daniel Greer
Freya Douglas-Morris (b. 1980, London, United Kingdom) depicts jewel-toned environments, inspired by remembered and imagined spaces. Through varying brushstrokes and painting applications, the artist depicts landscapes that appear to vibrate and shimmer with a radiant luminescence as an exploration of light’s rhythmic nature and the fragility of life.
Douglas-Morris received a BA in fine arts from Brighton University, Brighton, UK and an MA in painting from the Royal College of Art, London, UK. Her work has been featured at galleries and museums including Alexander Berggruen, NY; Lehmann Maupin, London, UK; Larsen Warner, Stockholm, Sweden; Pilar Corrias, London, UK; Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh, UK; HDM Gallery, Shenzhen, CN; The Manchester Contemporary, Manchester UK; Lychee One Gallery, London, UK; Saatchi Gallery, London, UK; Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall, UK; CS Hospiz Rennweg, Vienna, AT; Yellow Gallery & Transition Gallery, Varese, IT; Dallas Contemporary Museum, Dallas, TX; and Liverpool Biennial, UK. Douglas-Morris’s work is included in the collection of the Dallas Museum of Art, TX. She was featured in The Anomie Review of Contemporary British Painting 2 in 2021 and 100 Painters of Tomorrow in 2014. The artist lives and works in London, UK.
Freya Douglas-Morris in the studio, London, UK. Photo: Tamsin Topolski
FREYA DOUGLAS-MORRIS: THIS STAR I GIVE TO YOU
October 18-November 18, 2023
FREYA DOUGLAS-MORRIS, TOM HOWSE, TALIA LEVITT
July 20-August 31, 2022
THE NATURAL WORLD: PART II
March 9-April 13, 2022
DALLAS ART FAIR
April 20-23, 2023
British artist Freya Douglas-Morris crafts vibrant, dreamlike landscapes and spaces drawn from the artist’s memories and imagination. The artist’s figuration recalls the work of Milton Avery, while the organic line and shape of the paintings can be seen as a contemporary adaptation of 19th century aesthetics like Art Nouveau or Arts and Crafts. Her bold and decisive color schemes and flowing brushstrokes of each painting lend them a contemplative, meditative air that invite prolonged looking.
Douglas-Morris graduated from Brighton University with her B.F.A. in 2002, and the Royal College of Art, London, in 2013. Though her work has been represented previously in group shows with Alexander Berggruen, this will be Douglas-Morris’s first solo with the gallery, as well as in the U.S. The exhibition will coincide with a publication, produced by Hurtwood Press Limited, London, in association with Alexander Berggruen, as part of the Hurtwood Contemporary Artist Series.
On the occasion of our exhibition Freya Douglas-Morris: This star I give to you (October 18-November 18, 2023), we are pleased to share an edited transcript of a conversation between Freya Douglas-Morris and publisher and writer Matt Price, which took place at Freya’s studio in London Fields, East London, in August 2023. The full transcript can be found in Douglas-Morris’s publication This star I give to you, published by Hurtwood Press in association with Alexander Berggruen.
On the occasion of our exhibition Freya Douglas-Morris, Tom Howse, Talia Levitt (July 20-August 31, 2022), we spoke with the artists about their work.
On the occasion of Alexander Berggruen’s two-part exhibition The Natural World, we are delighted to share a new editorial feature in which Kirsten Cave connects the works in both exhibitions and discusses the emergent themes. Driven by statements from the artists about their work, Cave acknowledges the historical condition of climate change and explores how “attitudes and approaches to The Natural World range from studies of subject matter, line, color, and form, to meditations on symbolism, history, and projection.”
On the occasion of our exhibition Freya Douglas-Morris: This star I give to you, Hurtwood Press Limited, London, in association with Alexander Berggruen, published a book as part of The Hurtwood Contemporary Artist Series. The book documents the artist’s solo exhibition and showcases the eight large oil paintings on canvas and five oil paintings on copper that were on display. This star I give to you includes a conversation between the artist and British publisher Matt Price, a foreword by New York-based writer and Associate Director at Alexander Berggruen, Kirsten Cave, and studio notes by the artist on each of the reproduced works.
This catalogue was published on the occasion of the gallery’s two-part exhibition, The Natural World: Part I (February 2-March 2, 2022) and The Natural World: Part II (March 9-April 13, 2022). Included within are images and details of the artworks featured in the exhibition, by artists including David Hockney, George Condo, Emma Webster, Madeline Peckenpaugh, Sholto Blissett, Brittney Leeanne Williams, Scott Kahn, and Nicasio Fernandez, to name a few.
