Frea Buckler
Artist Statement
Frea Buckler is a multi-disciplinary artist applying her freestyle methodology in sculpture, wallpainting and screen printed drawings. She describes using the screenprint process as a tool for drawing to produce series of one off works on paper. This process, which she begins without preliminary sketches is paradoxically methodical, systematic and precise and embraces a balance between chaos and control, knowing and not knowing. She applies this approach to her sculptural and installation works, embracing the possibility of imminent failure and adaptation, always responding to what has gone before. She is constantly playing with the contrast of certainty and contradiction, knowing and ambiguity, perfection and imperfection in the making and outcomes of the works.
Her bold, colourful and geometric works resemble hard edge abstraction but she considers them to have more in common with abstract expressionism. They play with illusion and perception, they fit and don’t fit, there are loose ends and spaces in between. Patterns emerge but irregularity is key. The works are rhythmic, exploring sensations of loud and quiet, fast and slow. They are built from modular elements, shapes collected from found forms and objects used to demarcate, barricade and build.
Artist Bio
Frea Buckler was born in Cambridge, England in 1974 and grew up in rural Somerset. She went on to study BA (hons) Fine Art at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. She recently completed a Masters Degree in Multidisciplinary Printmaking at the University of the West of England in Bristol, where she continues to live and work.
She has exhibited internationally including being selected three times for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and a solo show at Jealous Gallery, London. She has worked on a large commission for Facebook, London and other public art projects.
Selected Exhibitions
Education
2003-2006 University of the West of England, Bristol MA Multi-disciplinary Printmaking
Distinction
1993-1996 Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London BA (hons) Fine Art 2.1
Projects
September 2018 Public Art Commission for Gingko Projects, Bristol
November 2017 Facebook AIR Commission, Facebook Headquarters, London
Selected Exhibitions
2018 Mor, Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin
2018 Process Process Process, Anise Gallery, London
2018 Repeat, Repeat, Studio 7, London
2018 250th Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
2018 Bold, Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin
2017 Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London
2017 Moniker Art Fair, Jealous Gallery, London
2017 Luminous, Solo Show, hosted by Smithson Gallery at Jealous, London
2017 Art Car Boot Fair, Smithson Gallery, London
2016 Neo:Print Prize, Bolton
2016 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
2016 Art Car Boot Fair, Smithson Gallery, London
2015 Moniker Art Fair, Smithson Gallery, London
2014 Multiplied Art Fair, Spike Print Studio, Christie’s, London
2014 Zillah Bell Gallery, Prints from the RA, curated by Norman Ackroyd
2014 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London
2013 Multiplied Art Fair, Spike Print Studio, Christies, London
2010 Charlie Dutton Gallery, London, selected group show
2009 View Art Gallery, Bristol. Selected group show
2009 RWA Open Print 2009
2009 Impress 09, Subscription Rooms, selected group show
2007 New Gallery, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, group show
2007 Committed to Print, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
Awards
2017 Aesthetica Art Prize, Longlisted, 2017
2016 Screenstretch award, Neo:Print Prize
1994 First Prize Falkiner Fine Papers Exhibition, London, judged by Prof.Tim Mara, Head of Printmaking, The Royal College of Art
Publications
June 2017 Printmaking Today, Technical, Cello Press
May 2017 Future Now: 100 Contemporary Artists 2017, Aesthetica Art Prize Anthology
October 2016 Jealous Newspaper
June 2014 Royal Academy Illustrated 2014: A Selection from the 246th Summer Exhibition, text by Richard Cork, London, UK: Royal Academy of Arts
