Al Freeman: From Behind — Al Freeman

Ellie Rines Gallery is pleased to present From Behind, a solo exhibition of ten new soft sculptures by Al Freeman. Freeman’s sixth solo presentation with the gallery, this exhibition deepens the artist’s investigation into the verso: the hidden backside of a painting. The exhibition will be on view from October 30th through November 25th 2026, with an opening reception on Friday, October 30 from 6 to 8 pm.

In From Behind, Freeman’s soft sculptures focus on the physical, administrative and conceptual infrastructure that sustains the ecosystem of the art world: stretchers, bills of sale, barcodes and provenance tags. Inspired by Claes Oldenburg’s humorous soft sculptures and Lichtenstein’s back-as-front paintings, Freeman adds her own inflated homespun touch to the tradition. She replicates the backs of paintings as vinyl plushies, each verso given the same attention and respect conventionally applied to the recto. Freeman creates beauty in the accidental compositions that go unseen. The sculptures suggest that the back of a rarified artwork is as important as its front. Might every painting be two sided? Once again, Freeman conflates the high and low aspects of culture, a motif that unifies most of her work to date.

In Landscape in Crate, Freeman draws inspiration from her visit to the secret storage space of the Whitney Museum where thousands of artworks, protected in neon green crates, are stored. Freeman sculpts the back of a canvas, its horizontal orientation indicating it is a landscape. The “canvas” is secured by foam blocks wedged tightly into an open “Whitney green” crate. Adhered to the exposed surface with vivid blue and red tape are the administrative paper trails of ownership: an abstracted bill of sale and certificate of authenticity. A stretcher bar and silver picture wire partition the surface into four segments, establishing an impromptu grid and a remarkably balanced composition. Stitched directly onto the panel, Freeman’s first name AL is “penciled” in soft graphite-colored cursive. The artist’s signature, traditionally a grandiose gesture, is here rendered as a squiggly shoelace of a monogram - imitation and sincerity merge in this single conceptual moment.

In Portrait with Many Stickers, the reality of a well-travelled picture is more overtly pronounced. One can easily imagine the rich wood grain of the stretcher, the nutty fragrance of linseed oil and the history of a piece, much-loved and frequently traded. The lower half of Portrait with Many Stickers features a scattered grid of colorful soft stickers, labels and tape swatches. These components give the impression that they accumulated over time and by chance. In fact, Freeman has deliberately created this verso image tapping into the same skills and sensibilities she developed as a young painter.

Freeman’s studio process is a rhythmic, meditative flow of sewing and collage akin to drawing in 3D. Without any formal training in sewing, Freeman’s stitched lines have a wavy organic quality similar to the loose lines of her pencil drawings. No pre-made patterns are used and shapes are cut from the cloth freehand. This punk rock approach to fabrication is a trial-and-error method in which mechanical precision is discarded in favor of intuitive decision-making, spontaneity and vulnerability.

While Freeman certainly includes elements of parody and quotation, From Behind ultimately reveals a sensibility that is down-to-earth, playful, and deeply sincere. Freeman invites the viewer to consider how meaning shifts when we look from a new perspective. By turning generic “masterpieces” around she flips the authority of the historical art canon to open a new and unpretentious dialogue with the past.