Elisabeth Frieberg graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Umeå, in 2010. She has previously exhibited at galleri Thomas Wallner in Skåne as well as Stene Projects in Stockholm and Andréhn-Schiptjenko in Stockholm and Paris and is today represented by Kewenig in Berlin.
A significant part of Frieberg’s process consists of being in and painting from nature in places that are important to her around the world. Colors and moods from these places – as well as an investigation of concepts such as scale, rhythm and time, form an essential part of her process. Based on sketches and color schemes, which she makes outdoors, she creates abstract paintings in larger formats in her studio.
Frieberg’s paintings have a minimalist expression, created with rich jewel tones in beautiful combinations, she often uses details in shimmering gold and always paints on linen. In her totally unique paintings there are still subtle hints to art history, Sigmar Polke and Agnes Martin have been named as sources of inspiration and the gold paint is a symbol often used in art, found with Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337), Gustav Klimt and in iconographic paintings.
In several of her works from the mid-2010s, she experiments with the characteristics and expression of the linen canvas. In the exhibition ‘Dying on stage’ at Galleri Wallner in 2014, she investigated the aesthetic qualities of the stretcher bars and the canvas. On several of the paintings, she mounted the canvas so that its outermost edges were folded outwards instead of being, as usual, stapled to the back of the painting. The work in the auction "Untitled (Blue, Gold, Center, Beam)" is one of these works. It had a central role in the exhibition at Galleri Wallner and is one of the first larger paintings where Frieberg let the edges of the canvas open up the painting in this way.
The monumental work ‘White Black Death Gold (Center Beam)’ was exhibited at gallery Kewenig in Berlin in 2020 and is the largest work in the series of the same name. The painting combines strict graphic lines, produced by meticulous and time-consuming taping, and freer expressive brush strokes that together create a wave-like movement on the canvas.
Elisabeth Frieberg has been awarded several scholarships, including in 2010 from The Baertling Foundation where she received it for ‘using painting to express her interest in the landscape, whether it concerns Cutár in Spain or her beloved Sörmland. In Bærtling's spirit, she succeeds in making the apparently minimalist surface of lines or of pure fields of color vibrate. And like Bærtling, she sees the paintings as part of something bigger [...].’
Frieberg's work is included in several private and public collections, such as the Moderna Museet, the Swedish Arts Council and the Aguéli Museum in Sala. In Magasin III's collection, there are a total of sixteen paintings, seven of which relate to her stay in the desert outside Taos, USA, in 2013.