Published on the occasion of the gallery’s first solo show with Freya Douglas-Morris, This star I give to you is the first publication on the work of London-based artist Freya Douglas-Morris, presenting a body of paintings exploring the poetry, beauty, and magic of landscapes and the natural world.
Born in London in 1980, Douglas-Morris spent several of her childhood years in a village near the coast on the Isle of Wight before she and her family moved back to London. These experiences of the land, sea, and sky contributed to her fascination with these subjects in her painting practice: ‘I think my love of being outdoors started then’ she remarks during her interview with British publisher Matt Price for this publication. The interview, which was held in the artist’s East-London studio shortly before Douglas-Morris’s solo exhibition of the same name at Alexander Berggruen, New York, in autumn 2023, explores topics including the artist’s love of walking, the genesis of the body of work in New York’s Central Park and the influence of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century modernist painting on her practice.
Featuring the eight large oil paintings on canvas and five oil paintings on copper that were displayed in the exhibition, This star I give to you also includes a foreword by New York-based writer and Associate Director at Alexander Berggruen, Kirsten Cave, along with studio notes by the artist on each of the reproduced works. A graduate of University of Brighton and the Royal College of Art, London, Douglas-Morris has exhibited internationally in China, Taiwan, The Bahamas, Austria, Italy, France and America.
Photos Courtesy of Hurtwood. Photography by George House