"Shallow Invitations," Danielle Fretwell at Alice Amati, London, UK, March 1st – April 13th, 2024

Alice Amati is delighted to announce the first solo exhibition of paintings by American artist Danielle Fretwell, opening with a private view on the 29th of February and running until the 13th of April.

Obscured still lifes and veiled canvases beg patience and proximity in “Shallow Invitations.” With the title, Fretwell chooses “shallow” to point to the objects of superficial value she has selected as subject matter, as well as the lack of depth in the work’s pictorial space.

Depth is found elsewhere — in Fretwell’s process and the dichotomies uncovered therein. A dance between speed and slowness, concealment and disclosure, and spontaneity and control defines the work.

A floral arrangement flickers behind washes of color and dabs of smudged paint in Before Bloom #2. A tabletop scene is dramatically cropped in Unraveling. In the piece In Close Proximity, an entire composition is shrouded in texture, then enclosed in chain link fencing.

Abstracted veils are a defining feature of Fretwell’s work and are reminiscent of the screens through which we find information. In her work and life, Fretwell urges that we use caution when consuming this information, encouraging us to ask: How can we trust what is being presented?

Several works are void of a nameable image. Fretwell wants the viewer to question what, if anything, is being covered up. Perhaps there was nothing there to begin with; perhaps the veil is enough.

Table settings and bouquets have been abandoned, left like the stale emptiness of a winterized summer home or a deserted photography studio: a quiet slide to dereliction.

At first a shallow invitation, this body of work has layers of process and metaphor that, when peeled back through slow looking, mirror our constant engagement with unreliable information.