In a style that weaves together realism and abstraction, Angela Fraleigh creates works that range from intimate portraits to monumental figure paintings. Exploring themes of gender, sexuality, femininity, and power dynamics, Fraleigh’s artworks feature women who are no longer forgotten historical figures or background characters bound by male-dominated narratives. The women Fraleigh depicts become daring protagonists in stories of their own.

She conjures the power of mythological women, figures which buck against the systems that demand their silence rather than resilience. Fraleigh works with museums to research their collections and retells the stories therein through the women’s perspectives. Through these adapted historical paintings with a contemporary lens, she corrects the misconception that women haven’t contributed to the culture, and points out that this was due to lack of access.

Plucked from old master works, or straight from New York history, the heroines of these artworks have been removed from their original contexts and gifted autonomy within the dreamscape-like realms of Fraleigh’s paintings. These immersive painted environments combine swirling abstract spaces and bold voids of color—the seen with the unseen. Fleshy forms are obscured by vibrant pours of color or lavish gold-leaf designs, while turned heads and cropped faces tease mysterious narratives of desire and whispered secrets.

Angela Fraleigh earned her MFA from Yale University School of Art and her BFA from Boston University. Her solo exhibitions include Hirschl & Adler Modern and PPOW Gallery in New York, Inman Gallery in Houston, TX, Peters Projects in Santa Fe, NM, and James Harris Gallery in Seattle, WA.

Fraleigh has created site-specific solo projects for the Edward Hopper House Museum, the Vanderbilt Mansion Museum, the Everson Museum of Art, the Delaware Art Museum, and the Weatherspoon Art Museum. Her work is included in the traveling exhibition, Gilded: Contemporary Artists Explore Value & Worth, which showed at the Weatherspoon Art Museum, The Hood Art Museum, and Hunter Art Museum. Her work can be found in museum collections such as the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.