Lucy Fradkin

Arthur Buys A New Suit, 2024
Acrylic gouache, collage, pencil on paper
11 x 9 inches (27.94 x 22.86 cm)

Courtesy of the Artist

Selected by Cecilia Alemani

With sources ranging from ancient frescoes and mosaics, Indian and Persian miniatures, vernacular, hand-painted signage and folk art, Lucy Fradkin’s paintings capture timeless moments through a contemporary lens.  Although her work is clearly inspired by traditional art forms, its contemporary significance is relevant through the quiet presentation of issues of gender and race, informed by personal history.

Fradkin, a self-taught artist, is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including a Pollock-Krasner Grant, an Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant, and two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships in Works on Paper. She recently was in residence in Venice, Italy at the Emily Harvey Foundation.  In 2023 she was invited to the renowned Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico to create lithographs with Master Printer Valpuri Remling. She has exhibited widely at museums and galleries in the US, Europe and Latin America at venues including the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, American Academy in Rome, The Bunker Artspace in West Palm Beach, FL and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, MO. She recently had her first solo exhibition in Paris, France at RX & Slag Galerie.

Her work has been reviewed in publications including the New York Times, Hyperallergic, Boston Globe among many others.  Her work is in prestigious private collections in the US and abroad, most notably The Agnes Gund Collection where two of her works were included in the film Aggie.