C U R R E N T A R T I S T

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Gayle Friedman

Gayle Friedman is a largely self-taught sculptor who grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. As a child, she dug up clay from a secret spot at the road’s end so she could play with it back home on the patio. She later attended the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, earning her BA in both Anthropology and Spanish. During college, she spent a summer on an archaeological dig on Snodgrass Island in the Tennessee River. Since then, she is always looking for the hidden, the lost, the buried. Her art frequently zeros in on inherited, collected and found objects in search of their messages and meaning.  Friedman has received Artist Fellowship Grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities from 2018 - 2022. In June 2018, her first solo show, Measuring the Weight of Longing, opened at International Arts and Artists at Hillyer Gallery, Washington, DC. In November, 2020, she presented her second solo show, The Dangerous Playground, at Red Dirt Studio, Mt. Rainier, MD, where she was an Artist in Residence. In January 2022, she was invited to join the District of Columbia Arts Center Sparkplug program. Friedman lives and works in Washington, DC, where she maintains a fine art jewelry practice alongside her sculptural work.