Anna Freeman Bentley

Anna Freeman Bentley’s practice explores the built environment, architecture and interiors; her paintings and works on paper depict derelict factories, domestic spaces, shops, cafés and classical and contemporary architecture. The artist seeks to explore the psychology and semiotics of space, in particular the interplay of the historic and contemporary and the intersection of the two sociologically, politically and across environments. Bentley’s paintings expand the discourse of displacement and replacement, decay and renewal, public and private, the organic and the manmade. Using a rich colour palette and gestural brushstrokes, the artist creates evocative and expressive works that speak to the atmospheric qualities of space, beyond the visual and tangible. 

Born in 1982, Freeman Bentley studied painting at Chelsea College of Art and Design before graduating with an MA from the Royal College of Art in 2010. She has been the recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant and has completed residencies at Palazzo Monti, Brescia and The Florence Trust, London. Freeman Bentley’s work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Venice, Los Angeles, New York, and Seoul, including Bloomberg New Contemporaries, London (2009). Her work is held in international collections including the Museum X, Beijing and The Basma Al Sulaiman Museum of Contemporary Art, Jeddah. 

She lives and works in London.