Angela Fraleigh

Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

Artist statement

I am a research-based painter. My work examines the relationship between stories and beliefs, dominant narratives and cultural power dynamics, mythologized heroes and contemporary values. I’m interested in how historical narratives, and the images that accompany them, express and influence beliefs about contemporary women and gender–and how we might upset those beliefs in favor of a more complex, inclusive lineage. All collections tell a story, embodied by specific histories of the objects as well as those of the institutions that have formed and evolved to house those objects. Museum collections are dynamic vessels of cultural memory, and much like all histories, are shaped by the complexities of those in power and what has been deemed valuable across time. Viewed through a contemporary lens and shifting social framework museums have the unique potential to continually re-contextualize their past to help enliven their future. My work weaves together realism and abstraction in layered compositions that range from intimate portraits to monumental figurative paintings that reimagine and re-signify women’s roles in literature, art history, and contemporary media. Through my work, I challenge our perceptions of the past in hopes that we might create a different future. I’ve been working with curators at historic homes and museums for the last seven years to reveal the stories that lay dormant within their collections.

Artwork