California artist and attorney Gwen Freeman offers selections of her evocative figurative works and subdued landscapes in her current exhibition in the Radio Room.
Recipient of a B.A. in philosophy and law degree from the University of Virginia, Freeman maintains an active law practice—often representing artists pro bono—even as she builds her reputation as a highly original painter influenced by the timeless geometry of Kandinsky and Miro, the folk art of rural America, and at times even a whimsy reminiscent of Dr. Seuss.
Freeman’s work “Johnny Angel,” inspired by the patterns and culture of the 1950s, was featured in the Community of Angels project and displayed at Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles. Her works have been shown at galleries in Arizona and Colorado, and featured annually over the past decade at the Arroyo Arts Collective.
Freeman is best known for her “Family Dining Scenes,” unique portraits in which the artist seeks to portray each family member both literally and metaphorically in a skewed, mock folk-art style. These works are peopled with figures that recall Chagall and Japanese “wood block” interiors, but with a distinctly American edge and palette. “The interior of the dining room is the stage with the table as the central focus, symbolizing the powerful force that keeps families together… more or less,” she says.
This spring five selections from her “Dining Room Scenes” were included in the “Setting America’s Table” exhibition at The Silo in New Milford, CT. In creating these portraits, the artist requires a vivid description of each family member, along with a comment regarding each person's perception of his or her place in the family.
Jessica Stewart, gallery and curatorial administrator at The Silo, observed in an interview with The Danbury (CT) News Times that these paintings typically portray the family gathered around a dining room table. "But instead of asking for pictures of her intended subjects, she asks for descriptions of what kind of people they are, so the images are more like psychological portraits than exact likenesses," Stewart noted.
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