Frances Aviva Blane

Frances Aviva Blane (Sternberg), is an English 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 at De Queeste Kunstkamers, Belgium. She has exhibited in Britain, Europe, Australia and Japan.
“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 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 fewest 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 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).
Films
Who is Frances Aviva Blane? (2020) directed by Penny Woolcock, camera Leo Regan, editing Alex Fry
Two Metres Apart with Susie Orbach (2020) directed by Penny Woolcock
Books
FRANCES (2021) by Susie Orbach, Eddy Frankel and Corinna Lotz
COVID (2020) by Susie Orbach and Frances Aviva Blane – a book of paintings and drawings made by Blane during the first COVID-19 lockdown with an essay by Orbach.
Who is Frances Aviva Blane? (2020) Blane, Orbach, Woolcock. A book accompanying the film of the same name directed by Penny Woolcock.
NOTHING by Frances Aviva Blane, a book of paintings and works on paper with a catalogue essay by Diana Souhami was published by Starmount Publications in 2015.
EMBASSY by Frances Aviva Blane. A book of paintings and drawings chronicling Blane's exhibition at the German Embassy London with introduction by Tess Jaray was published by Starmount Publications in 2017.
MORE Works on Paper by Frances Aviva Blane with essay by Mark Gisbourne was published by Starmount Publications in January 2018
FAB by Frances Aviva Blane with introduction by Susie Orbach was published by Starmount Publications in 2019
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 (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 The Architectural Biennale in Clerkenwell in 2004 and at Our Most Holy Redeemer Church in Exmouth Market.
Selected solo shows
Frances Aviva Blane, Dark, De Queeste Kunstkamers, Abele/Watou, Belgium from 11 November to 9 December 2018
Blane. Broken Heads, Broken Paint, 12 Star Gallery at Europe House, London 2018
Two Faces, a show of work by Frances Aviva Blane, The German Ambassador's Residence, London, 2016 – 2017
Deconstruct, Frances Aviva Blane shown alongside exhibitions of Francis Bacon and Louise Bourgeois, De Queeste Kunstkamers, Abele/Watou, Belgium, 2014
Big Black Paintings, Bay Hall, Kings College, London, 2014
Frances Aviva Blane, Paintings & Drawings, De Queeste Kunstkamers, Abele/Watou, Belgium, 2013
Paintings and Works on Paper, Quest 21, Brussels, 2011
Portrait/Painting, Shillam and Smith3 London, 2006
Prime Time: Painting, Frances Aviva Blane – paintings & drawings at Galerie Seitz & Partner, Berlin, 2006
Paintings in The Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer, ecArtspace, Exmouth Market, London, 2004
Frances Aviva Blane Paintings and Drawings ecArtspace in conjunction with London Architecture Biennale, St John's Street EC1, 2004
Delinquent Paintings, ecArtspace, 2001
Berry House Solo x 9: artists in Clerkenwell – including Susan Hiller, 1998
Frances Aviva Blane Drawing, Shillam Smith 3, 1997
F Blane Only, curated by Andrew Mummery, London, 1996
Curwen Gallery, London, curated by Andrew Mummery, 1995
Selected group shows
Basil Beattie + Frances Blane drawings and paintings, (20th anniversary show), ecArtspace @ Burgh House, London, 2022
Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, 2021
Moi et Les Autres. A group show with Daniel Enkaoua Etc. De Queeste Kunstkamers Abele/Watou Belgium, 2021
Ruth Borchard Collection, The Self Portrait Prize, 2021
Art from The Heart, Zuleika Gallery Exhibition in aid of Maggies Cancer Centre with Anish Kapoor, Trevor Sutton and Claudia Clare, 2021
Sea of Change with Stockwell and Jason Oddy online at www.ecartspace.com and Lemnos Greece, 2021
Fragmented, with Claudia Clare, Zuleika Gallery, London SW1, 2020
Distancing’, with Basil Beattie, Susan Stockwell, Dryden Goodwin, ecArtspace online, 2020
The Desire Of Looking, with Daniel Enkaoua, Marcelle Hanselaar, De Queeste Kunstkamers Abele/Watou Belgium, 2020
Age is Just a Number, Summer Show at Zuleika Gallery, London SW1, 2019
Ikonoclash #01 including Anton Kannemeyer and Marcelle Hanselaar, De Queeste Kunstamers, Abele/Watou Belgium, 2019
Abstract Allies including Trevor Sutton, Nigel Hall at Zuleika Gallery, London SW1, 2019
John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Gallery, Liverpool, 2018
HUMAN, The German Embassy, London, October 2017
Creekside Open 2017 selected by Jordan Baseman
Liquid Thought, with Daniel Enkaoua and Chris Stevens, De Queeste Kunstkamers, Abele/Watou, Belgium, 2016
Impact, with Louise Bourgeois, Marthe Zink, De Queeste Kunstkamers, Abele/Watou, Belgium, 2016
Jerwood Drawing Prize 2015 – 2016. London and UK tour
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
Drawing Breath, Jerwood Anniversary Exhibition, London, Sydney, Bristol, 2006 – 2008
Annely Juda A Celebration. Annely Juda Fine Art, London, 2007
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
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
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
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
Painting with John Mclean, 53–54 St John's Square, London, 2000
Chora, curated by Sue Hubbard, London and touring, 1999–2000
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
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
References
External links
Official site
De Queeste Art Gallery
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
20th-century British women artists
21st-century British women artists
20th-century English painters
Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art
British abstract artists
English contemporary artists
English Jews
English people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
English women painters
Jewish painters
Artists from Hampstead
20th-century English women
21st-century English women
21st-century English people