Jonathan Freemantle
Born: 1978 Cape Town, South Africa.
Lives and works: Edinburgh, Scotland.
At 17, he was selected as one of the five students from around the world to study at St Oswald’s Academy in London, an intensive 5 year traditional training/ apprenticeship in drawing, painting and sculpture and geometry, which continues to inform his rigorous approach to painting and art practice.
Founded on encyclopaedic and intimate understanding of painting and art history, Freemantle’s work explores the intricate relationship between his body, time and the earth as materials and as inspiration. Spanning egg tempera, mountain rocks and ochre in his paintings, he situates the body as an organic presence at one with the landscape, at the same time as integrating the landscape physically in the human act of painting.
In an age damned as Anthropocene, In his passionate and viscerally undeniable canvases, Freemantle consciously and resolutely makes the case for redemption and forgiveness of the human and as a male of the man, on the planet.
Freemantle, has been exhibiting internationally since 2007, with group and solo exhibitions in London, Cape Town, Amsterdam, Johannesburg and Edinburgh, including a major commission by The Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg.
In addition to an expansive studio practice, Freemantle has been working as an educator, setting up in 2002 the painting department of The Art Academy in London, writing ‘Anatomy made simple for Artists’ published by Arcturus (UK) in 2004. He has also curated numerous exhibitions in the context of Edinburgh International Fashion Festival, which he co-founded in 2012, as well as co-director of Hazard Gallery, he co-founded and ran in Johannesburg 2015-2019.
Having returned to Edinburgh in 2019, Freemantle has focused on full time studio practice.
His work is represented in collections worldwide including SAB Miller, Nirox Foundation and the private collection of HRH the Prince of Wales.
Born: 1978 Cape Town, South Africa.
Lives and works: Edinburgh, Scotland.
At 17, he was selected as one of the five students from around the world to study at St Oswald’s Academy in London, an intensive 5 year traditional training/ apprenticeship in drawing, painting and sculpture and geometry, which continues to inform his rigorous approach to painting and art practice.
Founded on encyclopaedic and intimate understanding of painting and art history, Freemantle’s work explores the intricate relationship between his body, time and the earth as materials and as inspiration. Spanning egg tempera, mountain rocks and ochre in his paintings, he situates the body as an organic presence at one with the landscape, at the same time as integrating the landscape physically in the human act of painting.
In an age damned as Anthropocene, In his passionate and viscerally undeniable canvases, Freemantle consciously and resolutely makes the case for redemption and forgiveness of the human and as a male of the man, on the planet.
Freemantle, has been exhibiting internationally since 2007, with group and solo exhibitions in London, Cape Town, Amsterdam, Johannesburg and Edinburgh, including a major commission by The Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg.
In addition to an expansive studio practice, Freemantle has been working as an educator, setting up in 2002 the painting department of The Art Academy in London, writing ‘Anatomy made simple for Artists’ published by Arcturus (UK) in 2004. He has also curated numerous exhibitions in the context of Edinburgh International Fashion Festival, which he co-founded in 2012, as well as co-director of Hazard Gallery, he co-founded and ran in Johannesburg 2015-2019.
Having returned to Edinburgh in 2019, Freemantle has focused on full time studio practice.
His work is represented in collections worldwide including SAB Miller, Nirox Foundation and the private collection of HRH the Prince of Wales.