Love in the mist

Frieda Dean

In 2000 Dean was invited to join Krishna Reddy's Color Print Atelier at NYU where she produced a body of color viscosity prints whose imagery is based on organic or blown-ink forms. During this period her work began to show the influence of her study of American Abstract Expressionist paintings and prints.

Frieda Dean chooses a quaint title for a piece that appears nearly its opposite: an abrasive, wild, and fascinatingly sinister etching rendered in acid green, featuring amoeba-like forms that dance across an illusion of woodgrain. Dean often borrows from the natural environment when creating her prints and is known for tackling the issue of climate change in abstract, often mysterious compositions that hint at approaching disaster despite the beauty of her creation.

In this color viscosity etching, these forms - which could be microorganisms as easily as they could be depictions of moss or even bursts of electricity - are subject to the viewer’s aesthetic, despite Dean’s hinting at a common flowering weed known for its pastel sweetness, the ubiquitous “Love-in-a-Mist”.