The Life and Education of Angela Fraleigh
Born in 1976 in Beaufort, United States, Angela Fraleigh is a contemporary American painter. Her academic journey in the arts led her to Boston University, where she earned a BFA in painting, graduating magna cum laude. She furthered her specialized training at the Yale University School of Art, obtaining an MFA in painting. Currently, Fraleigh serves as a full professor in the Art Department at Moravian College. She maintains her professional practice and residence in New York, New York, and Allentown, Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband, the artist Wesley Heiss, and their two daughters, Tuesday and Sagan.
Artistic Practice and Themes
Fraleigh’s work primarily utilizes paint, though she also engages with drawing and sculpture. Her process is characterized by a balance between control and chance; for instance, she may render figures using traditional methods before placing the canvas horizontally to introduce pours of paint across the surface. Described as a "painterly painter," her figurative works often feature tactile, flowing surfaces where forms may be obscured.
Her paintings frequently rework compositions by Old Masters to stage feminist interventions. By modifying Baroque and Rococo works, she seeks to grant narrative agency and autonomy to female subjects who traditionally held peripheral roles. Through these subtractions and additions, she explores themes of gender, sexuality, femininity, and power dynamics, often subverting the male gaze to examine the contemporary lives of women and their historical roles.
