Freya Gabie is a multidisciplinary artist working across sculpture, drawing, installation and film. Her practice is site-responsive, taking histories, communities and environments as a starting point, gathering everyday materials from each encounter to make work that speaks to the specificity of place. Her work engages with the politics of daily life across different communities in the UK and abroad, considering how people navigate conflict, and how societies carry the weight of difficult or violent histories. She is interested in what we learn about ourselves, and what we value, in the face of adversity.
Moving between the conceptual, documentary and the poetic, the work takes the role of noticing; little moments of human interaction that subtly reveal hidden narratives, or scrutiny of an environment that tells a different story of a society than the ones we construct. Small, playful interactions sit alongside more politically weighted investigations that reveal the familiar in new form, highlight different histories and create an altered material inheritance. Freya often works collaboratively with many different people, from iron miners to ecologists, clog dancers to opera singers. The work opens space for alternative perspectives and quieter voices, while finding humour in the strangeness of ‘normal’ things we've stopped noticing.
A recurring concern is the systems that quietly determine who participates in civic life and who doesn't, who and what moves freely, who has access, who is excluded. The work holds these tensions without resolving them, showing what is out of balance, and consistently finds, alongside the paradoxes and injustices, the unexpected connections and acts of kindness that persist within them.
In recent projects Freya spent three months working alongside different communities navigating life along the US/Mexico border, in Ciudad Juarez and El Paso. For this project, ‘Duet', she collaborated with a wide range of people, from gardeners, engineers, factory workers, migrants, charities, and people detained within the federal prison system. In 2024 she collaborated with social historians, Karnataka fruit sellers and Ayurvedic botanists in Bengaluru, India, to create a body of work that responded to the colonial legacies and ecological histories of Lalbagh Botanic Garden. She is currently commissioned by Oxford House, working with a group of young migrants creating an artwork exploring movement and belonging. Since 2020, Freya has been artist-in-residence at University College London, developing 'Underflow', three permanent public artworks for the new Dementia Research Institute.
Freya holds a BA in Sculpture from Chelsea College of Art and an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art.
She has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, and Kings College London, to undertake a practice-based PhD in the Department of War Studies.
AWARDS AND PRIZES
2022 Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, (Shortlist)
2020 Arts Council Covid Emergency Fund
2017 Artangel ‘Everywhere’ (Shortlisted – 1 of 8)
2017 Mark Tanner Sculpture Award, (Shortlisted)
2017 British School in Rome Bridget Riley Fellowship (Drawing) Shortlist
2015 Neo Art Prize, Residency and Solo Exhibition (Awarded)
2015 Griffin Gallery Open, Griffin Gallery, London (Finalist)
2015 Combat Art Prize, Livorno, Italy (Awarded)
2014 Uncertain States, Four Corners Gallery (Awarded)
2014 Jerwood Drawing Prize, (Shortlisted)
2014 David Troostwyk / Matts Gallery award (Finalist) Selected by Susan Hiller and Robin Klassnik
2014 Awarded Royal College of Art Bursary Scheme (Awarded)
2013 Awarded Royal College of Art Bursary Scheme (Awarded)
2013 Awarded Eaton Award Bursary (Awarded)
2012 Gilchrist Fisher Landscape Award (Awarded)
2009 The Open West Prize (Shortlisted)
2008 Artsway 08 Artsway, Sway, (Finalist)
2008 Darbyshire Award Shortlist Exhibition (Finalist)
2007 Salon 07 Short-list Exhibition (Shortlist)
PUBLIC COMMISSIONS
2026 'Strongest In The Mended Places' Oxford House commission for
'Material Histories' in collaboration with Praxis, UK and Kazzum Arts,
Bethnal Green, UK
2025 'Pile Up' Art Work Exeter, Exeter Customs House, UK
2024/2025 'Market Garden' Old Diorama Arts Centre, London UK
2021 ‘All Fired Up’ Historic England, Stoke on Trent / Poole, UK
2020 ‘Underflow’ UCL Public commission Site History London UK
2020 ‘Contagious Image’ Burton Museum and Art Gallery Bideford UK
2018 ‘Atlas’ Eriksburg Museum, Tranas, Sweden
2018 ‘Avenue’ Châteaux De Bosmolet, Diep-Haven Festival 2018 France
2017 ‘Grafted Chorus’ Future Perfect, Bristol, UK
2014 ‘Swansong; Dawn till Dusk’ D.I.G Collective, London, UK
SELECTED FUNDED INTERNATIONAL RESIDENCIES/PROJECTS
2026. Footholds, Danielle Arnaud Venice, Italy
2024 The Silence of Growing Things, Bangalore, India
2023 Action Space, collaboration with Artist Matthew Berry, UK
2022 Duet El Paso, Texas, USA / Ciudad Juarez Mexico
2019 Leonardo Da Vinci, A life in Drawing Artist, Bristol Museum, UK
2018 Offcut Artist residency/exhibition, Palsmuseum, Tranas, Sweden
2018 Raw Materials: Textiles, The Nunnery Gallery, London, UK
2017 IMR Artist in Residence aboard Dr Fridtjof Nansen Vessel, Namibia and South Africa
2017 USF Art Centre, Bergen, Norway
2016 Doremi, Florence Art Centre and Iron Mine, Cumbria, UK
2016 Neo Artist Residency, Bolton, UK
2015 108 Artist Residency, New York, USA
2015 Fljótstunga Artist Residency, Iceland
2015 DepARTure Foundation, London, UK
2013 Intern Fellowship, Franconia Sculpture Park, Minnesota, USA
2011 Artist in Residence/ solo exhibition, Styx Projects, Berlin, Germany
2009 Artist in Residence / solo exhibition, Meantime Space Cheltenham, UK
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 'Cold Frame' Milton Gallery, London, UK
2024 ‘Duet’ Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London UK
2023 ‘Monuments’ M2 Gallery, London, UK
2022 ‘Duet’ BAR, El Paso, Texas, USA
2020 ‘Contagious Image’ Burton Gallery and Museum, Bideford, UK
2018 ‘Hold The Line’ Project Launch. Danielle Arnaud, London, UK
2016 ‘Everything Must Go’ Neo, Bolton, UK
2016 ‘Quickly, Quietly’ 9B Projects, London, UK
2014 'Dawn till Dusk – Swan Song’ Dig Collective, London, UK
2011 ‘Undone.Retold’ Styx Projects, Berlin, Germany
2010 ‘Vestige’ an installation in an empty tower block flat, Glasgow, UK
2009 ‘Desirelines’ Meantime Space, Cheltenham, UK
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2026 'Thick Seems' two man show with Alida Kuzemczak-Sayer, St Peters Hungate, Norwich, UK
2026 'Footholds' two man show with Neville Gabie, Danielle Arnaud Venice, Italy
2025 ‘Pile Up’ two man show with Louise Ashcroft, Exeter Customs House, UK
2025 ‘Residency Reminiscence’ Artcore, Derby UK
2025 'Canopy' 14 Cavendish Square, London UK
2025 ‘Everything is Connected’ UCL Public Art, Craft Council, London UK
2024 'Arcade' Canopy Collections, London, UK
2024 'Coastal Currents' Hastings, Coastal Currents Arts Festival, Hastings, UK
2024 'The Silence of Growing Things' Artcore, Derby, UK
2024 'THISS 2024' The Hide, Stroud, UK
2024 'Trig Point' Millimetre Gallery Kingsgate Workshops London, UK
2023 ‘Secret Postcard’ RWA Bristol UK
2023 ‘Between Land and Sky’ SVA, Periscope Arts, Stroud, UK
2023 ‘Hung, Drawn & Quartered’ The Prick and Stitch Collective, Standpoint Gallery, London, UK
2022 ‘Trinity Wharf Drawing Prize’ Touring Exhibition, UK
2020 '25 Years' Danielle Arnaud, London UK
2019 ‘Gossip’ Take Courage, New Cross, London
2019 ‘The London Art Fair’ Danielle Arnaud Contemporary, London UK
2018 ‘OFFCUT’ Eriksburg Museum, Tranas, Sweden
2018 ‘Contre Point 1: Still life’, Auffey, France
2018 ‘Raw Materials; Textiles, Nunnery Gallery / Vallance House, London, UK
2018 ‘Say no more’ http://www.isthisitisthisit.com/say-no-more
2017 ‘ Air; Visualising the invisible in British Art 1768-2017’ RWA, Bristol, UK
2017 ‘A Bird in the Head’ Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London, UK
2017 ‘Hanger 1’ Charity Art Auction for Refugees, Berlin, Germany
2017 ‘This is where we fall’ Thames Side Gallery, London, UK
2016 ‘The Surround X Seen Through’ Avarard Hotel, Slate Projects London, UK
2016 ‘Spectrum’ PS Mirabel, Manchester, UK
2015 ‘Things I Know, Things I Don’t Know’ 108, New York, USA
2015 ‘Tendencies’ Mo.e Contemporary, Vienna, Austria
2015 ‘Sketchy Remarks’ DepARTure Foundation, London, UK
2014 ‘Echo’ The Function Room, London, UK
2014 ‘Spun Through Shadows’ Collaboration with Composer Nick Morrish and Another Dance Company, London, UK
2014 ‘Hole Story’ D.I.G Collective, Hackney, London UK
2014 ‘Works on Paper’ Meantime Projects. Cheltenham, UK
2014 ‘Royal College of Art Degree Show’ Sculpture RCA. London, UK
2014 ‘RCA Secret’ Dyson Gallery, London, UK
2013 ‘Workweek’ Casket Gallery, Minneapolis, USA
2013 ‘RCA Secret’ Dyson Gallery, London, UK
2013 ‘Extra-Ordinary’ Departure Foundation, Glassford Street, London, UK
2013 ‘Royal College of Art WIP Show’ Henry Moore Gallery London, UK
2012 ‘Middleland – Responses to Drawing’ 22 Gas Street, Birmingham, UK
2012 ‘Wanted’ Drawing Show, RCA London, UK
2012 ‘Smashed Plates and Seascapes’ The Cove, Lamorna, Cornwall, UK
2011 ‘One thing leads to another’ Portland House, Malvern, UK
2011 ‘Episode 2: Ghost in the machine’ The Others Gallery. London, UK
2011 ‘Wallpaper Collective:8 Folds’ Richmix Gallery. London, UK
2011 ‘Cellspace’ exhibition with Nicola Stead, Styx Projects, London, UK
2010 ‘At Play’ South Hill Park, Bracknel, UK
2009 ‘Archway Island Group Show’ Archway Methodist Church, London, UK
2008 ‘Siteshow’ 31 Warwick Square, London, UK
2007 ‘Seduced’ The Windows Gallery (In association with the Barbican) London, UK
2006 ‘Slightly off centre’ St Pancras Church Crypt, London, UK
2006 ‘This way up’ Temporary Contemporary. London,
