Warp, Weft, and Wash: Marley Freeman x Textile Artifacts
At Booth A20 of Frieze Los Angeles, Parker Gallery deepens its dialogue between painting and cloth with a presentation that feels as much archival as it does contemporary. For this year’s fair (26 February until 1 March), the gallery unveils a solo display of new works by Marley Freeman, realised in close collaboration with her family’s Los Angeles–based enterprise, Textile Artifacts.
Above: Marley Freeman, Jinx Gold, 2025. Oil and acrylic on linen. Below: European, c. 1920s, Jacquard woven in silk velvet.
Freeman’s paintings were conceived specifically with this context in mind. Her process involves applying hand-mixed gesso before building layered constellations of colour, mirroring the accumulated logic of textile construction. Shapes press against one another like patches in appliqué; passages of saturated pigment give way to thinner, almost abraded areas, recalling worn velvets or sun-faded chintz. The canvases stop just short of recognisable form, yet their internal rhythms evoke weave structures, borders and repeat patterns. Seen alongside the selected textiles, these resonances sharpen: a Victorian satin’s dense florals find an echo in clustered brushmarks; a length of raw, hand-loomed flax reverberates in a field of muted, tactile neutrals.
Above: Marley Freeman, Elderly Spinster Mermaid, 2025. Oil and acrylic on linen. Below: French, c. 1890s 2 panels. Jacquard woven portieres in dark red silk mohair.
The textiles on view have been chosen collaboratively by Marley, her brother Jordan and their father Paul, founder of Textile Artifacts. Since 1979, Paul has amassed an expansive archive of tapestries, Arts and Crafts yardage, Art Nouveau and Art Deco upholstery, postwar prints, trims, laces and costume fragments, sourced from across New England, New York and Europe. This collection is not static storage but an active resource. It is handled, unfolded, compared and reconsidered; its contents circulate through design studios and now, crucially, into the space of the art fair.
Above: Marley Freeman, I Am What I Asked For, 2025. Oil and acrylic on linen. Below: Attribution uncertain, c. 1850. Bullion tapestry on woven black wool felt with metallic and silk threads.
Collections such as this function as material libraries. They hold evidence of touch, labour and taste across centuries, offering artists a tactile education unavailable in reproduction. For Freeman, who accompanied her father to fairs from an early age, the archive became a formative lens. Colour relationships learned from oxidised dyes, the weight of wool against linen, the density of embroidery against open ground—these qualities are internalised and later rearticulated through paint. As curator Jenelle Porter observes in her interview for the accompanying guide, when Freeman says her “brain is made of textiles,” she points to a lifelong absorption of pattern, hand and structure, processed into intuitive abstraction.
Above: Marley Freeman. Downstream from meaning, 2025. Oil and acrylic on linen. Below: European, c. 1850s. Jacquard woven in wool damask.
At Frieze, two rotating installations will shift the conversation over the course of the fair, underscoring how artworks can emerge from sustained looking within a collection. Textiles will be available for purchase, collapsing the distance between archive and acquisition. A complimentary illustrated guide, designed by Purtill Family Business, further frames the exchange.
Within the global context of Frieze—founded in 1991 and now spanning cities from London to Seoul—this presentation stands out for its intimacy. It reminds us that collections are not merely repositories of the past; they are generative tools. In Booth A20, painting and textile meet as equal partners, each illuminating the other’s threads.
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Further Information:
Parker Gallery presents Marley Freeman x Textile Artifacts at Booth A20 of Frieze Los Angeles, from 26 February until 1 March.
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Image Credits:
Lead: My Purple Past, 2016, Marley Freeman x Textile Artifacts.
All artwork images courtesy of the artist and Parker Gallery.
All textile images courtesy of Textile Artifacts.