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Born in 1959 in Paris France, Freddie Towe has lived in Washington DC, New York, the Bahamas, Brighton England, rural Nova Scotia and moved to Toronto in 1979.

Early studies in clock-making fuelled her curiosity about how one thing leads to another and she later moved on to explore Super 8 film, video, sculpture, assemblage and painting.

Since 2004, Freddie Towe has shown her paintings, assemblages, sculptures and films in solo and group shows in various galleries in Toronto including Awol Gallery, Come Up To My Room at the Gladstone Hotel, Paul Petro Gallery, Propeller Gallery, Engine Gallery, Gallery 1313, Index G Gallery, and Canadian Fine Arts Gallery. She has two solo shows coming up in Bancroft in 2017: “Recent Portraits” at Bridge Street Art in September, and “Abstract Work” at the Art Gallery of Bancroft in December.

In 2015 she moved to live beside the York River, just north of Bancroft, Ontario and has exhibited her work locally at A Place For the Arts, Bridge Street Art and the Art Gallery of Bancroft. She is a member of the Place of the Arts collective.

As an art educator, she has taught painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, mixed media, and mosaic at The Art Centre at Central Technical School, ran classes at her studio and as a visiting artist for the Toronto District School Board.

Freddie’s innate sense of colour, rhythm, animation and the quirky interplay between humour and darkness are evident in her work. Her paintings and mixed media works explore connections and pathways both visually and metaphorically.

 


 

Artist Statement

This work is my response to the onslaught of imagery passing though my conscious and subconscious. My task is to create paintings with connections and pathways, allowing for a variety of interpretations.

I work intuitively and rhythmically. Laying down a barrage of random shapes, colours and values. I filter, edit, dress up, dress down, acknowledge and tune out. This process is a visual enactment of what we all do on a daily basis.

Stepping back, I see the figures, fauna, architecture, interiors, exteriors, urban, rural and extra-terrestrial landscapes central to my imagination.

 


Curriculum Vitae

Solo Exhibitions
2017 Peeps, Bridge Street Art, Bancroft, ON
2017 Flow, Art Gallery of Bancroft, Bancroft, ON
2013 Objets Poubelles, A­­WOL Gallery, Toronto, ON
2011 Dog, Howard Park Institute Window Gallery, Toronto, ON
2010 Where, Main Gallery 1313, Main Gallery, Toronto, ON
2007 The Cell, Cell Gallery 1313, Toronto, ON
2006 BONE, Gallery 1313, Cell Gallery, Toronto, ON
2004 Sculptures and Wall Panels, Engine Gallery, Toronto, ON
2004 Come up to My Room, with Shelley Lupu, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, ON

Selected Group Exhibitions
2017 John B Aird Gallery, Toronto, ON
2017 A Place for the Arts, Bancroft, ON
2016 Art Gallery of Bancroft, Bancroft, ON
2016 A Place For The Arts, Bancroft, ON
2015 Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto, ON
2015 Bridge Street Art Gallery, Bancroft, ON
2015 Fine and Dandy Gallery, Toronto, ON
2015 A Place for the Arts, Bancroft, ON
2014 Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto, ON
2014 Fine and Dandy Gallery, Toronto, ON
2014 Canadian Fine Arts Gallery, Toronto, ON
2014 Canadian Fine Arts Gallery, Toronto, ON
2014 Paul Petro, Toronto, ON
2014 Love Art Fair, Toronto, On
2013 Milk Glass, Toronto, ON
2013 Fine and Dandy Gallery, Toronto, ON
2013 Index G, Toronto, ON
2013 Fine and Dandy Gallery, Toronto, ON
2011 Fine & Dandy Gallery, Toronto, ON
2011 Engine Gallery, Toronto, ON
2009 Fine & Dandy Gallery, Toronto, ON
2008 Nuit Blanche, Gallery 1313, Toronto, ON
2008 Fine & Dandy Gallery, Toronto, ON
2005 Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts, curated by Olga Korper Toronto, ON
2005 Gallery 1313, Lakeside : Art Looks at Toronto Beaches, Toronto, ON
2004 Gallery 1313, Toronto, ON
2003 Gallery 1313, Toronto, ON
2003 Engine Gallery, Toronto, ON
2002 Gallery 1313, Toronto, ON
2002 Propeller Gallery, Toronto, ON
2002 Distillery District Art Fair, Toronto, ON
2002 Art Centre, Toronto, ON
1998 401 Richmond St., Toronto, ON
1997 Fifth Ontario Creative Arts Show, Exhibition Place, Toronto, ON
1996 ARTSPACE, Peterborough, ON, Art in the Garden
1995 Orbit Art Room, Toronto, ON
1994 Other Art Gallery, Halifax, NS

Bibliography
2008 Show Me Yours, a film about Toronto artists by Christina Zeidler
2008 The Herd Collective, Nuit Blanche, Gallery 1313, BlogTO, October, 2008
2005 Refuse to Die, catalogue publication, Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts, Toronto, ON
2005 Life’s a Beach and Then You Die, Gary Michael Dault, The Globe and Mail, Saturday July 9
2005 Come up to My Room, Azure Magazine, Ryan Legassicke, May 2005

Education
2004-10 Painting instruction with Michael Gerry, Toronto, ON
2006-08 Painting instruction with John Leonard, Toronto, ON
1998-02 The Art Centre at Central Technical, 3 year Honors Diploma, Toronto, ON

Collectives and Organizations
2015-17 A Place For The Arts, Bancroft, ON
2012-13 Fawna Furry, Toronto, ON
2012-13 Women’s Painting Club, Toronto, ON
2008 Herd Collective, Toronto, ON

Grants
1993 Centre for Art Tapes, New Media Grant, Halifax, N.S.
1983 Ontario Arts Council, Video Project Grant