Zipora Fried: Late October

About

Late October presents three distinct bodies of work, rooted in Fried’s rigorous drawing practice which persistently explores the liminal space between material and psychological themes. Several 30-foot long works on paper will be suspended from the ceiling of the gallery. These monochromatic drawings are densely covered in Fried’s signature line work–in each delft blue, helioblue, and cobalt green colored pencil, and graphite pencil.

Black and Nougat drawings combine dark and neutral colors in looser gestures akin to script. Although loosely organized in linear bands reading left to right and top to bottom, Fried’s gesture rejects the use of language. Fried favors instead a phenomenological reading of the sum total; an essence of sensory experience, or an obscure inner mood. 

Inspired by Japanese folklore and Yoaki mythology, Fried’s Barbara series also refers to the Greek “barbarous,” evoking the strange or foreign. These ink drawings are integral to Fried’s daily drawing practice, however previously unexhibited and among her most personal and intimate works. Monsters and demons, combined with figurative and natural elements, conjure strange recesses of a shared consciousness.

Fried desires to push the process and experience of drawing beyond its often peripheral relationship to other media to a fully charged state of sentient awareness. Her unique approach is achieved through an unrelenting and decades-long commitment to her practice.

Zipora Fried studied at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna. Recent exhibitions include Marfa Contemporary, Marfa (2015); On Stellar Rays, New York (2014/2011/2009); Galerie Steinek, Vienna (2014); Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo (2014); Clocktower Gallery, New York (2013); Katzen Center for the Arts, American University, Washington DC (2013); ACFNY, New York  (2012); Peter Blum Gallery, New York (2012); MoMA PS1, Queens (2010/2009); Public Art Fund, New York (2010); Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis (2010); Eighth Veil, Los Angeles (2009); Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (2006).

Fried's work is represented a number of museum collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; the Albertina Museum, Vienna; Katzen Center for the Arts, American University, Washington, DC; the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel; Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm; and the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge. Fried is also the recipient of numerous awards for her experimental films, which have been featured in festivals worldwide.