Kirby Fredendall

"I invite the viewer to experience the sense of entrance into a space, or I keep them out with opaque layers. I invite them to watch something seem to emerge or grow from the picture plane. I invite them to try to see real or imagined faces or words that may evoke a sense of nostalgia, confusion, or understanding. When we interact with the world, how do we project the complexity of ourselves? How much do we allow of ourselves to be 'seen?' How much do we really see of others and our surroundings?"
-Kirby Fredendall

Kirby Fredendall is inspired by the process in the making of visual images. Fredendall uses traditional oil paint, at times mixing it with wax or applying it to acid-etched tin. What she finds inspiring is the natural response of her media, the "random movement of wet acid as it etches the tin or by paint as it interacts with wax." The amorphous quality in her forms reflects their almost organic development. They are drawn from images of biological processes, images revealed by x-rays, biological photographs, and video ultrasounds.

In her exhibition, Add Sugar and Stir: Cookbooks and the Life of Women at the Michener Art Museum in 2011, Fredendall used text and illustration from actual cookboooks as the basis for complex and imaginative works of art. Focusing on the World War II era, Fredendall assembled images and collages that explore her response to a particular cookbook or advertising icon, sometimes burying words and and photographs within layers of wax and paint

Bucks County artist Kirby Fredendall has a Bachelor's Degree in art history from Duke University and a Master's Degree in art education and painting from Arcadia University. Her work has been included in more than 30 exhibitions since the mid-1990s in galleries and museums from Seattle to New York, including the State Museum of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art (DCCA). In the DCCA newsletter, critic Richard Huntington said of her paintings, "the lyricism is so pervasive that at times one can imagine the pigment itself soaked in some sweet nectar."

Education
Beaver College, Glenside, Pennsylvania, M.Ed., Art Education, Painting, 1992
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, BA, Art History, 1988
Boston University, London, England, London Internship Program, 1987
Duke University, Florence, Italy, Summer Renaissance Program, 1986

Teachers
Walter Melion and John Spencer, Duke University
Betsey Batchelor and Judith Heep, Arcadia University

Influences
Georgia O'Keefe, Gregory Amenoff, Donald Judd, Jim Dine, Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenberg, Piet Mondrian, Richard Diebenkorn, Emil Nolde, Ellsworth Kelly, John O'Donohue.

Connection to Bucks County
Born in Abington Pennsylvania and raised in Carversville, Fredendall has lived in Buckingham Township for the past 18 years. Her grandparents lived in Southampton where her grandfather served as township supervisor, securing the Tamanend Park as open space. Fredendall's father grew up in Bucks County and her mother has resided here since 1962.

Solo Exhibitions
Kirby Fredendall: Recent Work, Multiple Choice Gallery, Montgomery Community College, Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, 1998
Kirby Fredendall: Recent Work, Emerald City Fine Art, Seattle, Washington, 2001
Solo Show, Morpeth Gallery, Hopewell, Pennsylvania, 2002
Solo Show, Soul Works, Furlong, Pennsylvania, 2004
Women & Cookbooks, In the Kitchen, the 1940s, Peggy Lewis Gallery, Lambertville, New Jersey, 2007
Add Sugar and Stir: Cookbooks and the Lives of Women, Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 2011

Group Exhibitions
Gallery Artists Group Show Winter Exhibition, Riverrun Gallery, Lambertville, New Jersey, 1995
Bianco Gallery Summer Exhibition, Bianco Gallery, Buckingham, Pennsylvania, 1995
144" Square, Erector Square Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, 1996
Kirby Fredendall & Andrea Greeven: Recent Work, Union League Club Art Gallery, New York, New York, 1996
Two Up, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA, 1996
Selected Gallery Artists, 1996
Modern or Postmodern: Three Artists, 1997
Gallery Artists, 1998, Nancy Moore Gallery, New York, New York
Arts Bridge at Prallsville Mill, Prallsville Mill Gallery, Stockton, New Jersey, 1998
National Juried Open Exhibition, STAGE Gallery, New York, New York, 1998
Under One Foot, Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1999
71st Annual Art Exhibition, Art Association of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1999
9th Annual Exhibition, Lyet Gallery, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, 1999
Art of the State: Pennsylvania, State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1999, 2001, 2002
Small Works, Unison Arts Gallery, New Paltz, New York, 2000
Selected Artists, 2000; Small Works Show, 2002; Small Group Show, 2004; Summer Group Show, 2005, Morpeth Gallery, Hopewell Pennsylvania
Summer Painting & Sculpture Exhibition, Buckingham Valley Winery, Buckingham, Pennsylvania, 2004
Three Artists, Abbe Science Center Gallery, Solebury, 2005
Works on Paper, Perkins Center for the Arts, Moorestown, New Jersey, 2005

Artistic Community and Colleagues
Mark Pettegrow (sculpture)
Kevin Forest (sculpture)
Jim Stagnitto (music)
Amy Kosh (photography)
Erica Bonner (pottery)
Ed & Carol Nagel (decorative and fine art)

Annelies Van Dommelen (mixed media)

Linda Guenste & Jonathan Hertzel (painting and sculpture)

Randl Bye (photography)

Carter Sio (woodworking)

Debbie Tinsman (ceramics)

Sherrie Tinsman (jeweler)

Affiliations, Memberships, Schools
New Hope Collective
Arts & Culture Council of Bucks County
FACT

Major Awards
Selected by Open Studio Press, New American Paintings, Mid Atlantic 2000, Spring 2000

Teaching Appointments
Art Instructor at Solebury School in New Hope since 1993. Fredendall teaches painting, drawing, two-dimensional design and figure drawing.