Marley Freeman

Marley Freeman (b. 1981 in Boston, MA, lives between New York City and Massachusetts) applies hand mixed gesso onto canvases of varying scale before putting down her first layers of color, steadily building a narrative of organically connected shapes and forms that are informed by the push and pull of dense and looser strokes of paint in contrasting, unique pigments. The free flowing abstract shapes in Freeman’s canvases often approach—but stop just short of—truly recognizable form. Her intimacy with the world of textiles inform the internal structure of her psychologically charged canvases, which can be seen to mine the delicate intricacies of warp and weft to achieve carefully balanced compositions that reward sustained looking.

Her work is included in numerous public collections, including the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; RISD Museum, Providence, RI; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX; University of Colorado Art Museum, Boulder, CO; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.

News

Woman in a Rowboat
Olivia Foundation, Mexico City, CDMX
February 5–September 28, 2025


Exhibitions

Frieze Los Angeles

Feb 20 – Feb 23, 2025

Frieze Los Angeles

Feb 29 – Mar 3, 2024

Frieze London

Oct 11 – Oct 15, 2023

Wishing Well

Jun 25 – Aug 5, 2023

Independent

May 11 – May 14, 2023

Marley Freeman
elbow fist to make

Jan 15 – Feb 25, 2023

Marley Freeman
Why I'm Turning My Key

Jan 12 – Feb 29, 2020

Frieze Los Angeles

Feb 14 – Feb 17, 2019

Marley Freeman
Californienne

Feb 15 – Mar 31, 2018

Store

Marley Freeman

Hardcover, 166 pages
11 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches (28.6 x 26.7 cm)
Poems by Eileen Myles; Text by Adjua Gargi Nzinga Greaves, Francesca Wade, Cathleen Chaffee
Karma, New York, 2022

Marley Freeman: Park Closes at Midnight

Hardcover, 64 pages
10 1/2 × 8 1/4 inches (26.7 × 21 cm)
Text by Lauren O'Neill-Butler
Edition of 750
Karma, New York, 2019


Press

July 1, 2022
The Brooklyn Rail
Marley Freeman: take care
February 24, 2020
Los Angeles Times
With paint and antique textiles, artist Marley Freeman weaves intimate mysteries
July 3, 2019
Art Agency, Partners
Pushing Boundaries: Ten LGBTQ+ emerging artists of note
June 19, 2019
Art in America
Marley Freeman on Time and Spontaneity
June 15, 2019
Hyperallergic
Marley Freeman Charts the Abstract Space of Memory
June 11, 2019
The Brooklyn Rail
Marley Freeman: Park Closes at Midnight
December 7, 2018
The New York Times
Art Handlers at MoMA PS1 Demand Same Pay as Manhattan Colleagues
March 8, 2018
The New York Times
The Don't-Misses at Independent and NADA
February 12, 2017
Wall Street International
Marley Freeman at the PSM in Berlin
November 1, 2015
Art in America
Issues & Commentary: Productive Space
October 30, 2015
Artnews
Marley Freeman at Cleopatra’s
July 13, 2012
...might be good
Remark: Deep Throat; Conversation as Review