Freddie Bell
they/them/theirs and he/him/his
Freddie is a multi-disciplinary artist living in Hillsborough, NC and works out of his studio in the Eno Arts Mill. Their passion for creating has followed them to California and back and across careers in the arts and social work. Freddie finds inspiration in community and how we understand ourselves. Freddie received his BA in Art at Warren Wilson College in 2012. They have participated in group shows throughout Los Angeles and North Carolina at galleries including Greensboro Project Space, Durham Arts Guild Truist Gallery, and Lump Gallery. Freddie has presented solo exhibitions at Artspace in Raleigh, NC and Page Walker in Cary, NC. Freddie is also a muralist, with projects completed in Durham, Chapel Hill, and the NC Museum of Art. Freddie was a 2022 Regional Emerging Artist Resident at Artspace in Raleigh, NC and a 2023 recipient of the Snapdragon Fund Project Grant. As a queer and transgender artist, gender and identity are inherently an influence behind all of Freddie’s work. Freddie loves using color, shape, and varied repetition to reflect on lived experience and is currently exploring the relationship of grief, the body, and communal networks.
Artist Statement
My identity as a queer and transgender person informs how I see and move through the world and is a fundamental influence in all my work. Refusing to see the world as binary black and white, I utilize color, pattern, and texture to explore, challenge, and make meaning of lived experience.
I am interested in how the body knows about and holds on to grief and trauma. Our interior systems store our lived experiences in our fascia, gut, and bones. Working across disciplines and utilizing multiple mediums, I develop abstract paintings, sculptures, and assemblages to express the internal workings of our bodies on external surfaces.
We are impacted by grief, loss, and devastation not just individually but as a collective. Currently, I’m interested in how we can build networks of community and mutual aid to support each other before, during, and after events of both joy and pain. Inspired by both our internal physical systems as well as environmental systems like mycelial networks, I explore the concept of (re)building network through collage and assemblage. Repurposing found material, I construct assemblages that become nontraditional surfaces for collage. After making monoprints full of color and texture, I cut them into strips and use randomized processes informed by the Dada artist movement to develop collaged sculptures and abstract images.