Chaos Suspended

Fleeman (b. 1999) is an emerging, Jackson, WY based artist, known for her alchemical approach to paper-based works that blur the dualist boundaries between art and science, chaos and control, art and craft, and hardness and softness. In Chaos Suspended, she continues this exploration of visual paradox through a series of mixed media works that fuse hand-made organic dyes, quilting practices, and chemical reactions, unified under precise geometries that stand as vibrantly textured, crystalline-like compositions.

Fleeman’s unique educational background across both chemistry and studio art has allowed her to create a contemporary aesthetic that is intuitive and also measured, organic and also architectural. Her aesthetic developed nearly by chance; having left a grapefruit on an oxidizing metal plate in her studio, rusting for over the course of a week, Fleeman returned and noticed an alkalizing reaction, releasing natural dyes from the fruit. This led to a host of experiments incorporating organic dyes extracted from fruits and vegetables, then applied to chemical sheets to produce an unpredictable, kaleidoscopic reaction. The surfaces are later distilled through a meticulous process of cutting, measuring, and arranging. “Fleeman’s paintings speak to the various dualities in all of us.” says Shari Brownfield. “It’s not often that ‘elegance’ and ‘mad scientist’ merge! Fleeman walks that line with a precision that I am continuously drawn to; I feel a pull to continue exploring every inch of her surfaces when I stand in front of her work.”  Each piece of the new series offers viewers an intimate look at the tension between unpredictability and structure, a place where we can see ourselves too. 

Fleeman is a graduate of Davidson College and has exhibited throughout the Southeast in solo and group exhibitions, including ArtFields (SC), The Bascom (NC), and McNeese State University (LA). She was most recently an artist-in-residence at the Byrdcliffe Art Colony in Woodstock, NY, and currently serves as Director at the Maya Frodeman Gallery.

Join us soon in celebrating this rising (and local!) voice in contemporary abstraction.