Frances Aviva Blane

Frances Aviva Blane is a British abstract painter who works in the Expressionist tradition. Her subject matter is the disintegration of paint and personality. Blane also draws. However, whereas her paintings are mainly non-referential, the drawings are often of heads, although, as in her paintings, the “heads” are deconstructed which echo her words “broken-up paint, broken-up heads”. In 2014, her drawings were shown in an exhibition entitled Deconstruct^[1] at De Queeste Kunstkamers, Belgium alongside shows of work by Louise Bourgeois and Francis Bacon. She has exhibited internationally in the UK, Europe, Australia and Japan. She was born in London.

“They are desperate paintings, fetching isolated and sombre emotion from the deep recesses – they are ‘primeval, before language, dredged from the back of your mind’. They are Beckett-like landscapes and express something like anxiety, unease, restlessness, all tinged with melancholy or plain sadness.”

Dr Edward Winters, West Dean College, 2005, from the introduction in the catalogue^[2] for Frances Aviva Blane’s show, Prime Time: Painting, Frances Aviva Blane – paintings & drawings 2006 at Galerie Seitz & Partner, Berlin, January – February 2006

“Blane’s drawings are not for the faint-hearted. They are very demanding and what they demand is attention. Blane seeks to find the least number of marks that will carry the emotional energy she pours into every work. Such loaded distillations require input and work on the part of the viewer as well. They incite a response. ‘I want to make a mark that no has ever seen before.’ And so she does.”

Doris Lockhart Saatchi, London, 2005, from the introduction in the catalogue ^[3] for Frances Aviva Blane’s show, Prime Time: Painting, Frances Aviva Blane: paintings & drawings 2006 at Galerie Seitz & Partner, Berlin, January – February 2006

Education

Blane studied at Chelsea School of Art (1988), Byam Shaw School of Painting and Drawing (1991) and the Slade School of Fine Art, London (1993).

Gallery

Blane is represented in Belgium by De Queeste Art Gallery.

Exhibitions

Blane’s first show in London was curated by Andrew Mummery, a British gallerist. She is also an award-winner of the Jerwood Drawing Prize (1999) and took part in their exhibition Drawing Breath, an anniversary show.

Blane has been included in many group shows including Chora^[4] (London and touring the UK) curated by art critic Sue Hubbard and Women’s Contemporary Self Portraits at the Usher Gallery (Lincoln and touring). Blane also showed at the Annely Juda Gallery in the exhibition Annely Juda – A Celebration. She has had two-handed exhibitions with Basil Beattie and John Mclean, both prominent British abstract painters.

She was sponsored by the British Council and the Goethe Institut to take part in a painting swap with German artists. She has also exhibited at at The Architectural Biennale in Clerkenwell in 2004 and at The Holy Redeemer Church in Exmouth Market.

Selected solo shows

• Deconstruct, Francis Bacon and Louise Bourgeois, De Queeste Kunstkamers, Abele/Watou, Belgium, 2014^[5][6]
• Big Black Paintings, Bay Hall, Kings College, London, 2014^[7][8]
• Frances Aviva Blane, Paintings & Drawings, De Queeste Kunstkamers, Abele/Watou, Belgium, 2013^[9]
• Paintings and Works on Paper, Quest 21, Brussels, 2011^[10]
• Portrait/Painting, Shillam and Smith3 London, 2006
• Prime Time: Painting, Frances Aviva Blane – paintings & drawings at Galerie Seitz & Partner, Berlin, 2006 ^[11]
• Paintings in The Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer, Exmouth Market, London, 2004
• Frances Aviva Blane Paintings and Drawings in conjunction with London Architecture Biennale, St John’s Street EC1, 2004
• Delinquent Paintings, ecArtspace, 2001 ^[12]
• Berry House Solo x 9: artists in Clerkenwell – including Susan Hiller, 1998 ^[13]
• Frances Aviva Blane Drawing, Shillam Smith 3, 1997 ^[14]
• F Blane Only, curated by Andrew Mummery, London, 1996
• Curwen Gallery, London, curated by Andrew Mummery, 1995

Selected group shows

• De Vage Grens, with Frank Auerbach, Reniere&Depla, etc. De Queeste Kunstkamers, Abele/Watou, Belgium, 2015
• Critics Circle, Selector Corinna Lotz, Mall Galleries, London, 2013 ^[15]
• Drawing Breath, Jerwood Anniversary Exhibition,^[16] London, Sydney, Bristol 2006 – 2008
• Marlborough Fine Art, The London Print Fair, 2006
• Blind Art, Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro, 2005
• Sense and Sensuality, Blind Art, London, New York, Leicester, 2006 ^[17]
• Blind Art, Royal College of Art, London, 2005
• Weiss zieht und gewinnt, Galerie Seitz & Partners, Berlin, 2005
• Small is Beautiful, Flowers Central, London, 2004
• Very British?, Arbeiten von Britschen Kunstlerinnen with Tacita Dean, Mike Silva, Die Drostei, Pinneberg, 2004
• The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries London, 2004
• Art Works in Mental Health, Royal College of Art, London, touring Cardiff, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Manchester, 2003
• Dialogue with Nigel Ellis, ecArtspace London, 2002 ^[18]
• Absolut Secret, Royal College of Art, London, 2002 − 2004, 2006 − 2010
• Drawings for All, Gainsborough’s House, Suffolk, 2002
• The Contemporary Art Society, Art Futures, 2002
• German and English Painting Swap, Berlin/London, sponsored by the British Council and Goethe institut, 2002
• Drawing – Frances Aviva Blane with Basil Beattie, ecArtspace, London, 2001 ^[19][20]
• Galerie Stuhler, Berlin, 2000, 2001
• Jerwood Open Drawing Show award winner touring Berlin and Ghent, 2000
• Before, Now and After with Helen Sears and Sheila Gaffney, Berlin and London, 2000 ^[21]
• Painting with John Mclean, 53-54 St John’s Square, London, 2000
• Chora, curated by Sue Hubbard, London and touring, 1999-2000 ^[22]
• The Cheltenham Open Drawing Show, 1999
• Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery East, 1999–2003
• In The Looking Glass, women contemporary self-portraits, Usher Gallery Lincoln and touring, 1996
• The London Group  Biennial exhibition, Barbican Centre, 1995
• Royal Academy of Art, Summer Exhibition, 1995
• Into the Nineties, Pick of the Postgraduates, showcase of new artists, Mall Galleries, 1993 ^[23]

Awards

• Jerwood Drawing Prize, 1999
• Mid-America ART Alliance Fellowship for Visual Arts, 1998
• Residency at Djerassi Artists’ Foundation, California, 1998
• Graham Hamilton Drawing Prize, 1991

Residency

Blane had a residency in 1998 at the Djerassi resident Art Programme in California founded by Carl Djerassi.

Collections

Her work is in many collections including Jesus College Cambridge,^[24] LSE,^[25] Moorfields Eye Hospital,^[26] The Sternberg Centre, The Usher Gallery,^[27] Lincoln, and Three Faiths Forum^[28] London.

References

External links

• Official site
• De Queeste Art Gallery