FRANCESCA MOLLETT

Lives and works in London (UK)

Francesca Mollett makes abstract paintings that react to space and context. Her works are reflections of light and surface formed through a fluid yet precise process. Compositions evolve by extracting observations from an image, which transforms in a practice of analysing the shifting passages of paint as tension between luminosity and solidity develops. Often influenced by literature, Mollett reveals a deep relationship between the ethos of life and of time, elusive and unable to be articulated through representation alone. In this, abstraction - through colour and texture - becomes an attentive way of considering these affinities. In many of her works, we see organic subjects rendered, so their defining details of difference dissolve into new yet familiar grounds. Through this careful balance of specificity Mollett’s practice invites us into spaces of desire, understanding, and candid encounter.

Mollett is deeply intrigued by the conceit that the surface of a painting can be a shifting passage to experience a fragmented interior space collaged with varying states of consciousness from, memory, flow, rupture, and anticipation.

Moved by painting’s ability to foster an exchange with a viewer and deconstruct their preconceptions, the artist connects us to the brilliant and spectral patterns of life we often miss in the realm of the quotidian.

Francesca Mollett received her MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London (UK) in 2020, having previously studied at the Royal Drawing School and Wimbledon College of Art, London (UK). Recent exhibitions include Elsewhere at The Warehouse, Dallas, TX (US) and A Room Hung With Thoughts: British Painting Now, curated by Tom Morton at the Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX (US).

Selected collections: Comico Art Museum Yufuin, Oita (JP), David and Indre Roberts Collection, London (UK); Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX (US); He Art Museum, Foshan (CN); Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL (US); K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong (HK); Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (NL); Kunstmuseum, The Hague (NL); Pond Society, Shanghai (CN); the Rachofsky Collection, Dallas, TX (US); Sainsbury Centre, Norwich (UK); and the University of Oxford, St Hilda’s College Art Collection, Oxford (UK), among others.

Courtesy GRIMM