Larsen / Warner is thrilled to present Tales of Water a solo exhibition by British artist Freya Douglas – Morris (b.1980, UK). The exhibition presents an extraordinary new body of work where the artist’s deep connection to water is threaded throughout. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Sweden and follows on from her acclaimed exhibition Mid - March Melody at Lehman Maupin London (2024) and her inclusion in the group exhibition Travelers in The Mist at Larsen / Warner last year. Douglas-Morris is widely known for her vividly coloured landscape paintings that depict rolling hills, rich flora, luminous skies and tranquil waters. Her skill lies on her ability to mold memories of experience and place, creating imagined landscapes that seem both separate from and at the same time rooted in reality; magical spaces immersed in warmth and beauty.

In the making of the works for this exhibition the theme of water, which is often present within Douglas – Morris’ paintings, kept surfacing. Developed slowly overtime in her Hackney studio, each painting in some way reflects the artist’s own relationship to water; from growing up in a village by the sea on the Isle of Wight, to her past visit to Stockholm where each day she was either beside or in the water. Within each painting Douglas – Morris depicts lakes, rivers, ponds and shorelines, and where there is no specific body of water the landscape is treated as if it were; flowing, reflecting, layered. In Tales of Water, the threads of water run deep.

 Through the artist’s sophisticated and skillful ability to manipulate paint in all its forms, Douglas-Morris creates paintings that display a mesmerising combination of colour to depict her expansive and panoramic landscapes. Paint is applied with a virtuosic touch; from large, thin veils of pigment to areas of smaller, more intense brush strokes that evoke artists such as Pissarro and Bonnard. Through this  subtle and beautifully balanced painterly dance, Douglas – Morris weaves together a multitude of art historical references from Fauvism to ancient Japanese wood block printing to create landscapes that themselves seem alive.

Douglas – Morris creates transportive paintings that communicate the allure and fragility of nature. With each painting the viewer can feel that they are walking within past footsteps, where history, time and memory merge to create poetic scenes made for reflection.

Douglas-Morris received a BA in fine arts from Brighton University, Brighton, UK and an MA in painting from the Royal College of Art, London, UK. Her work has been featured at galleries and museums including Alexander Berggruen, NY; Lehmann Maupin, London, UK; Larsen Warner, Stockholm, Sweden; Pilar Corrias, London, UK; Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh, UK; HDM Gallery, Shenzhen, CN; The Manchester Contemporary, Manchester UK; Lychee One Gallery, London, UK; Saatchi Gallery, London, UK; Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall, UK; CS Hospiz Rennweg, Vienna, AT; Yellow Gallery & Transition Gallery, Varese, IT; Dallas Contemporary Museum, Dallas, TX; and Liverpool Biennial, UK. Douglas-Morris’s work is included in the collection of the Dallas Museum of Art, TX. She was featured in The Anomie Review of Contemporary British Painting 2 in 2021 and 100 Painters of Tomorrow in 2014. The artist lives and works in London, UK.