{"id":2647,"date":"2025-10-21T15:07:40","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T22:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=2647"},"modified":"2025-10-21T15:07:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T22:07:40","slug":"through-lush-embellisment-anne-von-freyburg-depicts-monstrous-women-who-revel-in-excess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=2647","title":{"rendered":"Through Lush Embellisment, Anne von Freyburg Depicts Monstrous Women Who Revel in Excess"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Through<\/p>\n

In monumental installations teeming with sequins, brocades, fringe, and shiny vinyl, Anne von Freyburg<\/a> stakes a bold claim about excess and freedom. <\/p>\n

The artist (previously<\/a>) is known for her \u201ctextile paintings,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\"a
\u201cSoft Blush (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The Reverie)\u201d (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 220 x 200 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Von Freyburg continues to explore extravagance as it relates to traditional gender roles, romance, and saccharine expressions of love. She draws on Lauren Elkin\u2019s recent book, Art Monsters<\/a><\/em>, which posits that women who reject the role of wife and mother\u2014and the societal expectations of beauty and kindness\u2014are often seen as villains. <\/p>\n

The tension between the feminine and the monstrous is evident in several of the artist\u2019s works, including \u201cSoft Blush (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The Reverie),\u201d 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:<\/p>\n

\n

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\u2019s about being free and choosing your own path to happiness in relationships. No more fairy tales about men saving women; instead, it\u2019s about women being the heroines in their own life stories.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The vibrant pieces shown here will be on view in Amour Toujours<\/em>, which runs from November 8 to December 27 at K Contemporary<\/a> in Denver. Find more from the artist on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"a
\u201cSomething in the Air has Changed (After Fragonard, the Progress of Love: the Meeting)\u201d (2025),
textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 350 x 250 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
Detail of \u201cSoft Blush (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The Reverie)\u201d (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 220 x 200 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
Detail of \u201cSomething in the Air has Changed (After Fragonard, the Progress of Love: the Meeting)\u201d (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 350 x 250 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
Detail of \u201cSoft Blush (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The Reverie)\u201d (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 220 x 200 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cSpellbound (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: Love letters)\u201d (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 285 x 150 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cSpellbound (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: Love letters)\u201d (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 285 x 150 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
Detail of \u201cSpellbound (After Fragonard, The Progress of Love: Love letters)\u201d (2025), textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry-fabric, sequin fabrics, hand-embroidery, polyester wadding and hand-dyed tassel fringes on canvas, 285 x 150 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member<\/a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Through Lush Embellisment, Anne von Freyburg Depicts Monstrous Women Who Revel in Excess<\/a> appeared first on Colossal<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u201ctextile…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}