An artist's statement
Discover more about Freya Carlbom
In the genre of still life Carlbom has exhibited throughout New England and New York and has received praise since the eighties. She first exhibited in Cambridge and Provincetown galleries and then at Boston Center for the Arts and Boston City Hall. Her work was shown by the Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA and The NAGA Gallery on Newbury Street. Harvard University commissioned Carlbom to design an 8 x 20 ft. mural to enhance an important research lab, and the Ella Lyman Cabot Trust supported her as an art educator. In 1986 she returned to her home city of New York. She has exhibited at The Hecksher Museum, NY; The Cooperstown Art Association, NY; The Silvermine Guild, CT; The Pearl Gallery, CT; and the Berkshire Museum, MA. Her paintings have been included in shows juried by: Wayne Thiebaud, Ivan Karp, Emma Amos, Tom Cugliani, Lisa Phillips, and Eric Brown. Resident fellowships at the Weir Farm Art Alliance, CT, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Cummington Community of the Arts, MA and Millay Arts, NY are further highlights.
Carlbom studied at Columbia University and was awarded her MFA in 1988.
freya's perspective
I want a viewer of my work to inhabit the canvas with me and to be engaged or perhaps challenged by the objects that I’ve chosen to depict. For me painting has been a natural progression of sometimes very different ideas. The common elements: a love of painterly stroke, robust design, and distinguished proportion. Influences are observable from a spectrum of references, images and experience. I grew up in an unprecedented era of American art when Abstract Expressionism was at the forefront. Artists as divergent in approach as Franz Kline, Ad Reinhart, Stuart Davis, and John F. Peto prompted me to develop my stance as a painter. My years as a progressive educator have confirmed a commitment to support an ongoing and productive departure from convention. Having made unexpected changes in style I’m attracted to other artists who use idioms that cannot be readily identified and that are at times unfamiliar. In addition to still lifes I’ve completed abstracts, landscapes and figurative pieces.
