FREYA DOUGLAS-MORRIS

Lehmann Maupin London is pleased to present My time here is brief, an exhibition of new paintings by British artist Freya Douglas-Morris and her first since joining the gallery’s program in January. In her newest works, Douglas-Morris depicts a series of ethereal landscapes in which memory itself becomes the subject. The exhibition flows from one painting to the next like a visual phrase, emulating the familiar patterns of nature—from the changing of seasons to the rhythms of day and night. My time here is brief considers how a place is emotionally experienced on both a personal and shared level. In spring 2027, Douglas-Morris will have concurrent solo exhibitions in New York with Lehmann Maupin and Alexander Berggruen, who co-represent the artist in the US.

Douglas-Morris is known for her landscapes that depict rich flora, glowing skies, and serene waters and shorelines. Her work sits within a lineage of modern and contemporary painters who employ landscape as a psychological and emotional space rather than a descriptive one. Douglas-Morris treats landscape as an inner terrain—a vessel for memory, feeling, and subjective experience—rather than a topographical record. In Fauvist-inspired colours, the artist crafts imagined scenes inspired by daily life and time spent in nature. She applies paint in many layers—ranging from opaque swaths of colour, to precise, textured detail, to sheer washes—making visible both the artist’s hand and the elements of chance inherent in the medium. This process imbues her scenes with a haptic yet luminous quality, reminiscent of Mark Rothko’s colour fields, Helen Frankenthauler’s serene expressionism, or Gustav Klimt’s tactile environments.

The paintings in My time here is brief derive their subject matter from sources beyond Douglas-Morris’s immediate environment, while also incorporating elements rooted in settings found closer to home. Each landscape depicts a mixture of the imagined and the familiar, rendering projections of place that allow viewers to connect the imagery to their own experiences. The artists’ colour palette across the series is bold yet natural, building further tension between the organic and fabricated. In Rush of autumn (2026), her interest in colourwork comes to the fore; autumnal trees are rendered in vibrant orange and outlined in a fluorescent pink, while grasses and shadows contain natural greens. In Olive grove (2026), one of the more surreal works in the exhibition, two elongated cathedral forms align with a mountainous horizon, their shapes echoing the slope of the land beneath a deep purple sky.

Meanwhile, in We went on a walk to celebrate, the land stretched on unending (2026), which constitutes the artist’s largest canvas to-date, multicoloured hills roll from foreground to background, their hues ranging from earthy green and brown tones to deep reds and icy whites. Textures also vary from ridge to ridge, dotted with feathered bushes and stark pine trees; at the centre, a reflective lake mimics the subtle streaks seen in the dusk-toned sky, punctuated by purple clouds and a gleaming moon. Here, otherworldly qualities collide with familiar subject matter; the work balances imaginative elements with recognisable landscape features, prioritising structure and atmosphere over depiction of a specific location.

Across the exhibition, quiet inlets, moon-filled lakes, small saplings, and abundant foliage seem to unfold seamlessly from one scene to the next, building a new yet coherent world where water, sky, shoreline, and horizon line merge. My time here is brief invites viewers to reflect on how landscapes are remembered and interpreted, and how fleeting moments shape our understanding of place.