Pia Fries: Schwarzwild

In these new paintings, collectively entitled Schwarzwild (wild pig), Fries begins with a skeleton of imagery taken from black and white botanical illustrations by Maria Sibylla Merian (1647- 1717), details of which are screen-printed onto the hard wooden surface of the support. Working within this framework, oil paint is squeezed, brushed and moulded using a variety of application tools, some of which are more usually found in the kitchen. Although complex in their imagery and with obvious reference to the great American Abstract Expressionists these paintings have a particularly contemporary European freshness to them.
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