Freedom Fighter Painting

ABOUT THE WORK I'm a painter who loves art history but also has a secret attraction to 'bad taste' and whatever's unfashionable. It's my way of rebelling against being told exactly what to do and how to do it. Growing up in Australia as the daughter of Estonian immigrants, I felt invisible. My parents were desperate to assimilate, so I learned to blend in, be polite and agreeable. But I hated all the rules and also hated dolls. I was both fascinated and repelled by my grandma's framed needlepoint pictures imitating famous paintings. The same applied to the ornaments my mother collected. Today I revisit these memories and sensations, many of which have persisted into adulthood. Feelings remain of wanting to be seen versus hiding away; craving to escape the mould but being reduced to a pattern; and the battle to escape standardisation. The overriding theme in my art is the heroine’s journey and a quest for freedom. ABOUT THE ARTIST Chris Aerfeldt is an Australian artist of Estonian heritage now based in Europe. Born in Adelaide, Aerfeldt completed a Bachelor of Education in Art Teaching. She then spent over a decade honing her colour and design skills, creating award-wining wearable art as one-off evening gowns and and knitwear. The lure of art-making saw her return to study via a scholarship, completing a BVA (Hons) in 2000 from Adelaide Central School of Art. She quickly gained gallery representation around Australia.. A Samstag Scholarship enabled her to travel to London in 2007 and complete her MFA at Chelsea College of Art. There her paintings were picked up by numerous renowned collectors, including Charles Saatchi. Over the past twenty years Aerfeldt’s work has been shown in the UK, Australia, France, Germany, Switzerland and Spain. Her paintings are held in public collections, including the Art Gallery of South Australia and the University of the Arts, London. The artist moved to Europe in 2008, and now lives and works between Montpellier, France and Barcelona, Spain.