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

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),” as pop culture symbols and text bubbles mar a central figure trapped in a chaotic blur of material. Distorted by the mass of embellishments, the woman appears grotesque and uncontainable as her form bulges and falls in a deluge of pink string. Von Freyburg adds:

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.

The vibrant pieces shown here will be on view in Amour Toujours, which runs from November 8 to December 27 at K Contemporary in Denver. Find more from the artist on Instagram.