Frances Aviva Blane

Frances Aviva Blane, born Frances Aviva Sternberg , is an English abstract painter who works in the Expressionist tradition. Her subject matter is the disintegration of paint and personality. Blane also draws. However, whereas her paintings are mainly non-referential, the drawings are often of heads, although, as in her paintings, the "heads" are deconstructed which echo her words "broken-up paint, broken-up heads". In 2014, her drawings were shown in an exhibition entitled Deconstruct at De Queeste Kunstkamers, Belgium. She has exhibited in Britain, Europe, Australia and Japan.
“They are desperate paintings, fetching isolated and sombre emotion from the deep recesses – they are 'primeval, before language, dredged from the back of your mind'. They are Beckett-like landscapes and express something like anxiety, unease, restlessness, all tinged with melancholy or plain sadness.”
Dr Edward Winters, West Dean College, 2005, from the introduction in the catalogue for Frances Aviva Blane's show, Prime Time: Painting, Frances Aviva Blane – paintings & drawings 2006 at Galerie Seitz & Partner, Berlin, January – February 2006
“Blane’s drawings are not for the faint-hearted. They are very demanding and what they demand is attention. Blane seeks to find the fewest marks that will carry the emotional energy she pours into every work. Such loaded distillations require input and work on the part of the viewer as well. They incite a response.
‘I want to make a mark that no has ever seen before.’ And so she does.”
Doris Lockhart Saatchi, London, 2005, from the introduction in the catalogue for Frances Aviva Blane's show, Prime Time: Painting, Frances Aviva Blane: paintings & drawings 2006 at Galerie Seitz & Partner, Berlin, January – February 2006
Education.
Blane studied at Chelsea School of Art (1988), Byam Shaw School of Painting and Drawing (1991) and the Slade School of Fine Art, London (1993).
Films.
Who is Frances Aviva Blane? (2020) directed by Penny Woolcock, camera Leo Regan, editing Alex Fry<br>
Two Metres Apart with Susie Orbach (2020) directed by Penny Woolcock, camera Leo Regan, editing Alex Fry
Exhibitions.
Blane's first show in London was curated by Andrew Mummery, a British gallerist. She is also an award-winner of the Jerwood Drawing Prize (1999) and took part in their exhibition Drawing Breath, an anniversary show.
Blane has been included in many group shows including Chora (London and touring the UK) curated by art critic Sue Hubbard and Women's Contemporary Self Portraits at the Usher Gallery (Lincoln and touring). Blane also showed at the Annely Juda Gallery in the exhibition Annely Juda – A Celebration. She has had two-handed exhibitions with Basil Beattie and John Mclean, both prominent British abstract painters.
She was sponsored by the British Council and the Goethe Institut to take part in a painting swap with German artists. She has also exhibited at The Architectural Biennale in Clerkenwell in 2004 and at Our Most Holy Redeemer Church in Exmouth Market.