Holly Friesen

Holly Friesen is a contemporary Canadian landscape painter based in Montreal, QC whose paintings evoke the natural environment as embodied experience which she feels is essential to a contemporary understanding of the earth. She learns what she needs to know about survival by painting.

"The more I paint the less separation there is between inner and outer ecologies which results in a linking of perceptions with the natural world where attempts to define or control are useless. For me, painting is like deep prayer awakening a reverence for the earth's inner landscape; the image is in you and you are in the image. Painting is my breath, beauty my compass, and the earth my body."

Holly Friesen was born in Saskatchewan, studied Visual Arts at John Abbott College in Montreal and painting at York University in Toronto. The artist’s studio is currently based out of Montreal QC. Her paintings are collected internationally and part of both corporate and private collections. Holly’s passion is painting vibrant landscapes from the inside out while collaborating with other artists to make art more visible in our everyday world.

Practice of the Wild
Downtown Artist Cellar
Malone, NY
July/August 2023

Nature's Inner Light
Edgewater Gallery,
Middlebury, Vermont
Sept/Oct 2023

Adventures in the Imaginal
solo exhibition - May, 2022
Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass. USA

Earth Marks, Water Lines
Group exhibition April 30th to June 30th, 2022
James Baird Gallery, Pouch Cove, Newfoundland

Twice Blessed - recent works
July 29 - Sept 12, 2021
Lake Placid Center for the Arts
Lake Placid, NY

Silent Kingdom - April 9 to 14, 2021
Online exhibition with Artwrk.ca
Canadian Online Art Gallery

The Spirit of the Group of 7 June 1 to October 15
Featured Artist August 15 - Oct 15, 2021
Algonquin Art Center,
Algonquin Park, Ontario

Embracing the Unknown (wool &. watercolor) - August/Sept, 2021
Bluseed Studios
Saranac Lake, NY

The Deep Forest - July 23 to Sept 7, 2020
Corscaden Barn,
Keene Valley, NY

Giving Ground
solo show
Erga Gallery, 6394 St Laurent Blvd
Montreal, Quebec
Vernissage April 4, 2019 6-8pm
Exhibition continues until April 7th, 2019

The Language of Art
Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury, Vermong
Vernissage April 5, 2019
Opening Reception 5-7pm

Lost in the Forest
solo pop up show
Centre d'Art E.K. Voland
4720 rue St Ambroise
Montreal, QC
Vernissage...