Frances Aviva Blane

Frances Aviva Blane ( Sternberg), is a British abstract painter who works in the Expressionist tradition. Her subject matter is the disintegration of paint and personality. Although her paintings are mainly non-referential, her drawings are often portraits of heads.

She has exhibited alongside Frank Auerbach, Basil Beattie and John McLean in Europe, Japan, Australia and the UK.

Portrait (2020) by Frances Aviva Blane oil and linen 90x90 cm. Photographer Richard Ivey

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

Portrait (2024) directed by Penny Woolcock, is a conversation between Susie Orbach and Frances Aviva Blane Who is Frances Aviva Blane? (2020) directed by Penny Woolcock, camera Leo Regan, editing Alex Fry Two Metres Apart with Susie Orbach (2020) directed by Penny Woolcock

Books Me Me Me! (2024) Paintings and drawings by Frances Aviva Blane with essay by Anna McNay. Portrait (2024). Paintings and drawings by Frances Aviva Blane with essays by Susie Orbach and Penny Woolcock. Dark (2023). Paintings and drawings by Frances Aviva Blane with essay by Anna McNay. On Paint (2022). A book of paintings and drawings by Frances Aviva Blane with essay by Sacha Craddock. August (2022). Paintings and drawings by Frances Aviva Blane with essay by Susie Orbach. Basil Beattie and Frances Aviva Blane 2021 (2021). A book documenting a show by Blane and Beattie at ecArtspace with essays by Sue Hubbard and Manick Govinda. Frances (2021) by Susie Orbach, Eddy Frankel and Corinna Lotz. COVID (2020) by Susie Orbach and Frances Aviva Blane – a book of paintings and drawings made by Blane during the first COVID-19 lockdown with an essay by Susie Orbach. Who is Frances Aviva Blane? (2020) Blane, Orbach, Woolcock. A book accompanying the film of the same name directed by Penny Woolcock. FAB (2019) by Frances Aviva Blane with introduction by Susie Orbach. More. Works on Paper by Frances Aviva Blane with essay by Mark Gisbourne was published by Starmount Publications in January 2018. Embassy by Frances Aviva Blane. A book of paintings and drawings chronicling Blane's exhibition at the German Embassy London with introduction by Tess Jaray was published by Starmount Publications in 2017. Nothing by Frances Aviva Blane, a book of paintings and works on paper with a catalogue essay by Diana Souhami was published by Starmount Publications in 2015.

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.

Solo shows Me me me! Zuleika Gallery, Woodstock, Oxford (2024) Disturb Shippon Gallery, Chardstock, Axminster, Devon (2024) On Paint, ecArtspace.com, London 2022 Frances Aviva Blane, The Brave Truth, at Zuleika Gallery, Oxfordshire, UK, November 2022 Frances Aviva Blane, Fired with Claudia Clare, Gallery 286, London, October 2022 Frances Aviva Blane, Dark, De Queeste Kunstkamers, Abele/Watou, Belgium from 11 November to 9 December 2018 Blane. Broken Heads, Broken Paint, 12 Star Gallery at Europe House, London 2018 Two Faces, a show of work by Frances Aviva Blane, The German Ambassador's Residence, London, 2016 – 2017 Deconstruct, Frances Aviva Blane shown alongside exhibitions of Francis Bacon and Louise Bourgeois, De Queeste Kunstkamers, Abele/Watou, Belgium, 2014 Big Black Paintings, Bay Hall, King's College London, 2014 Frances Aviva Blane, Paintings & Drawings, De Queeste Kunstkamers, Abele/Watou, Belgium, 2013 Paintings and Works on Paper, Quest 21, Brussels, 2011 Portrait/Painting, Shillam and Smith3 London, 2006 Prime Time: Painting, Frances Aviva Blane – paintings & drawings at Galerie Seitz & Partner, Berlin, 2006 Paintings in The Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer, ecArtspace, Exmouth Market, London, 2004 Frances Aviva Blane Paintings and Drawings ecArtspace in conjunction with London Architecture Biennale, St John's Street EC1, 2004 Delinquent Paintings, ecArtspace, 2001 Berry House Solo x 9: artists in Clerkenwell – including Susan Hiller, 1998 Frances Aviva Blane Drawing, Shillam Smith 3, 1997 F Blane Only, curated by Andrew Mummery, London, 1996 Curwen Gallery, London, curated by Andrew Mummery, 1995

Group shows Het Festijn. New works by Frances Aviva Blane, Eleanor Havsteen-Franklin, Evelien Hiele, Thomas Lohmann and Dimitri Kolibarov, De Queeste Art, Belgium 2024 An Echo in Time. Paintings and works on paper by Frances Aviva Blane, De Queeste Art, Abele/Watou and at the group show in Watou, Belgium 2024 Curated at Dorfold Hall – British art then and now. A group show at Zuleika Gallery, Oxfordshire, UK, December 2023 Salon van de Tekening. A group show with Frank Auerbach, George Grosz and Erich Heckel. De Queeste Kunstkamers, Abele/Watou Belgium, March 2023 Basil Beattie + Frances Blane drawings and paintings, (20th anniversary show), ecArtspace, Burgh House, London, 2022 Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, London, 2021 Moi et Les Autres. A group show with Daniel Enkaoua Etc. De Queeste Kunstkamers Abele/Watou Belgium, 2021 Ruth Borchard Collection, The Self Portrait Prize, 2021 Art from The Heart, Zuleika Gallery Exhibition in aid of Maggies Cancer Centre with Anish Kapoor, Trevor Sutton and Claudia Clare, 2021 Sea of Change with Stockwell and Jason Oddy online at www.ecartspace.com and Lemnos Greece, 2021 Fragmented, with Claudia Clare, Zuleika Gallery, London SW1, 2020 Distancing’, with Basil Beattie, Susan Stockwell, Dryden Goodwin, ecArtspace online, 2020 The Desire Of Looking, with Daniel Enkaoua, Marcelle Hanselaar, De Queeste Kunstkamers Abele/Watou Belgium, 2020 Age is Just a Number, Summer Show at Zuleika Gallery, London SW1, 2019 Ikonoclash #01 including Anton Kannemeyer and Marcelle Hanselaar, De Queeste Kunstamers, Abele/Watou Belgium, 2019 Abstract Allies including Trevor Sutton, Nigel Hall at Zuleika Gallery, London SW1, 2019 John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Gallery, Liverpool, 2018 Human, The German Embassy, London, October 2017 Creekside Open 2017 selected by Jordan Baseman Liquid Thought, with Daniel Enkaoua and Chris Stevens, De Queeste Kunstkamers, Abele/Watou, Belgium, 2016 Impact, with Louise Bourgeois, Marthe Zink, De Queeste Kunstkamers, Abele/Watou, Belgium, 2016 Jerwood Drawing Prize 2015 – 2016. London and UK tour De Vage Grens, with Frank Auerbach, Reniere&Depla, etc. De Queeste Kunstkamers, Abele/Watou, Belgium, 2015 Critics Circle, Selector Corinna Lotz, Mall Galleries, London, 2013 Drawing Breath, Jerwood Anniversary Exhibition, London, Sydney, Bristol, 2006 – 2008 Annely Juda A Celebration. Annely Juda Fine Art, London, 2007 Marlborough Fine Art, The London Print Fair, 2006 Blind Art, Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro, 2005 Sense and Sensuality, Blind Art, London, New York, Leicester, 2006 Blind Art, Royal College of Art, London, 2005 Weiss zieht und gewinnt, Galerie Seitz & Partners, Berlin, 2005 Small is Beautiful, Flowers Central, London, 2004 Very British?, Arbeiten von Britschen Kunstlerinnen with Tacita Dean, Mike Silva, Die Drostei, Pinneberg, 2004 The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries London, 2004 Art Works in Mental Health, Royal College of Art, London, touring Cardiff, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Manchester, 2003 Dialogue with Nigel Ellis, ecArtspace London, 2002 Absolut Secret, Royal College of Art, London, 2002 − 2004, 2006 − 2010 Drawings for All, Gainsborough's House, Suffolk, 2002 The Contemporary Art Society, Art Futures, 2002 German and English Painting Swap, Berlin/London, sponsored by the British Council and Goethe institut, 2002 Drawing – Frances Aviva Blane with Basil Beattie, ecArtspace, London, 2001 Galerie Stuhler, Berlin, 2000, 2001 Jerwood Open Drawing Show award winner touring Berlin and Ghent, 2000 Before, Now and After with Helen Sears and Sheila Gaffney, Berlin and London, 2000 Painting with John Mclean, 53–54 St John's Square, London, 2000 Chora, curated by Sue Hubbard, London and touring, 1999–2000 The Cheltenham Open Drawing Show, 1999 Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery East, 1999–2003 In The Looking Glass, women contemporary self-portraits, Usher Gallery Lincoln and touring, 1996 The London Group Biennial exhibition, Barbican Centre, 1995 Royal Academy of Art, Summer Exhibition, 1995 Into the Nineties, Pick of the Postgraduates, showcase of new artists, Mall Galleries, 1993

Awards A Jerwood Drawing Award, 1999 Mid-America ART Alliance Fellowship for Visual Arts, 1998 Residency at Djerassi Artists' Foundation, California, 1998 Graham Hamilton Drawing Prize, 1991