Francesca Mollett

Francesca Mollett (born 1991) is a British abstract painter known for her richly layered canvases exploring light, surface, and liminal space. She lives and works in London.

Early life and education

Mollett was born in 1991 in Bristol. She then studied at the Royal Drawing School in London in 2015, where she developed a sustained interest in abstraction. In 2020, she received her MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London.

Practice

Mollett makes abstract paintings that react to space and context. Literature is another persistent influence: emotional events within fiction mediate Mollett's perception of the physical world, particularly when a character's encounter deconstructs their expected reality and expands their sense of connection to their surroundings. The Art Newspaper wrote in 2024 that her paintings seem to possess a singular "it factor", marking her as one of the more compelling figures in contemporary British abstraction.

Career

After graduating from the Royal College of Art, Mollett exhibited in the group show London Grads Now at the Saatchi Gallery, London, in 2020. Her first solo exhibition, Wild Shade, was held at Informality Gallery, London, in 2021.

She has also featured in significant group exhibitions, including The Kingfisher's Wing curated by Tom Morton at GRIMM, New York (2022); Considering Female Abstractions at the Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas (2023); New British Abstraction at CICA, Vancouver (2023); and A Room Hung With Thoughts: British Painting Now, curated by Tom Morton, at the Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas (2025).

Dallas Museum of Art Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX He Art Museum, Foshan, China Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Miami, FL K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong Kröller-Müller Museum, The Netherlands Kunstmuseum, The Hague Pond Society, Shanghai Rachofsky Collection, Dallas, TX The Roberts Institute of Art, London University of Oxford, St Hilda's College Art Collection

Selected solo exhibitions

Year Title Venue 2021 Wild Shade Informality Gallery, London 2022 The Moth in the Moss Taymour Grahne Projects, London 2022 Spiral Walking Baert Gallery, Los Angeles 2023 Low Sun Micki Meng, San Francisco 2023 Halves GRIMM, Amsterdam 2023 Noon Pond Society, Shanghai 2024 Corso GRIMM, New York 2025 Elsewhere The Warehouse, Dallas 2025 Annual Honesty Modern Art, London

Awards

Aidan Threlfall Award for Young Painters, 2020

Publications