Abigail Frankfurt American, b. 1973

Abigail Frankfurt was born in New York in 1973. A self-taught artist, she utilizes visual and tactile free association to create powerful mixed media collages; unique “maquettes" that are ultimately translated into large scale photographic prints.

 

A central concern in Frankfurt’s practice is the intersection of image and writing; the hybrid territory where both artforms meet. Hence, language is either embedded within her works or springs from them into adjacent prose poems.

 

Not properly medicated for bipolar disorder until the age of 42, Frankfurt originally started making collages as a coping mechanism. “The sensory experience cracked open my imagination like an egg flung out an open window,” the artist says.

 

She began gathering abandoned magazines, comic books, photographs, buttons, pills, candy, toys, hardware, vintage porn, old postcards, metro-cards, pressed flowers, googly eyes... At the heart of her process is the therapeutic act of ripping paper and transforming faces, bodies, and settings through the layering and juxtaposition of these found materials. Then, using matte gel, acrylic paint, gouache, and sometimes oil, she creates settings that allow her characters the freedom and playfulness to exist in their own worlds; atmospheric narratives full of joy and pathos.

 

Read artist's personal essay COMBINATION LOCK  here