Through Lush Embellisment, Anne von Freyburg Depicts Monstrous Women Who Revel in Excess

"In monumental installations teeming with sequins, brocades, fringe, and shiny vinyl, Anne von Freyburg stakes a bold claim about excess and freedom. The artist ( previously) is known for her "textile paintings," large-scale tapestries that appear to drip, bleed, and cascade down the wall. Gaudy and yet rooted in elegance, the works draw on Dutch Golden Age and Rococo painting traditions, incoporating lush flowers and dramatic ornamentation."

"Von Freyburg continues to explore extravagance as it relates to traditional gender roles, romance, and saccharine expressions of love. She draws on Lauren Elkin's recent book, Art Monsters, which posits that women who reject the role of wife and mother-and the societal expectations of beauty and kindness-are often seen as villains. The tension between the feminine and the monstrous is evident in several of the artist's works, including "Soft Blush (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The Reverie),""

"I approached this body of work as a declaration of the love and care necessary for all of us to thrive. It gives us permission to do the things we love doing. It's about being free and choosing your own path to happiness in relationships. No more fairy tales about men saving women; instead, it's about women being the heroines in their own life stories."

Anne von Freyburg creates monumental installations rich with sequins, brocades, fringe, and shiny vinyl that repurpose tapestry techniques into sculptural textile paintings. The large-scale works appear to drip, bleed, and cascade, combining gaudiness with Rococo and Dutch Golden Age ornamentation and lush floral motifs. The work examines extravagance in relation to traditional gender roles, romance, and saccharine expressions of love, and incorporates Lauren Elkin's idea that women who reject wife-and-mother roles are cast as villains. Pieces such as Soft Blush distort feminine figures in cascades of embellishment to suggest monstrous, uncontainable forms. The exhibition Amour Toujours runs November 8–December 27 at K Contemporary in Denver, and more work appears on Instagram.

Read at Colossal