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Fredericka Foster

Fredericka Foster works in oil painting and photography. She was born in Seattle and has spent most of her life on, or near, water. This proximity gave rise to a deep, personal connection with water, amplified by her Buddhist studies and practice. This lifelong connection to water has deeply informed her paintings.

After receiving her B.A. in Art at the University of Washington, she studied and taught at The Factory of Visual Arts in Seattle, and eventually moved to New York. She currently lives in New York City and Seattle.

She has exhibited in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Since 2002, she has had five solo painting exhibitions, called “Waterway,” at the Fischbach Gallery in New York City. She has also participated in many of their group shows.

From 2011 to 2012, Foster was guest curator of “The Value of Water” at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. She exhibited paintings other exhibitions there, “The Value of Food” in 2016 and “Christa” in 2017. She had a solo show of her Waterway paintings at The Beacon Institute of Rivers and Estuaries in 2014 and participated in the 2017 Clio Art Fair in New York.

Foster believes that the art experience involves a different way of knowing that can connect people intuitively and emotionally; increasing personal resiliency and encouraging positive change. In addition to curating and participating in the exhibits at St. John and BIRE, she has had many opportunities through her painting to be an advocate for water.

In April of 2017, she gave a talk at the Sage Assembly in Seattle, where she spoke to a group of two hundred and fifty scientists about water issues and solutions. Her presentation combined art, science, environmental issues and activism, and culminated in a performance “Exploring Catastrophe to Water Through Science and Art.”

Foster exhibits online with the Fischbach Gallery, now located in Miami Beach.

Arctic Midnight Sun Diptych ea. 48 x 36″ oil on canvas 2017
Fischbach partial installation 2013
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  1. […] Fredericka Foster lives and works in Seattle, Washington. At the time of the interview, she was experiencing the effects of severe wildfires throughout the region. Conversely, Foster’s work focuses on water. Through her investigations, Foster discovered that every major religion across all cultures reveres water in some way. Foster’s work takes on two personas. When looked at as a small image, the work appears quite true to life. Seen at a larger scale, the layering she uses is revealed lending an abstract quality to her paintings. Fischbach Gallery represented Foster in New York until its forced closure and relocation to Miami. During her years with Fischbach, Foster painted prolifically. She also curated a show at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City during this time. For a long time prior to this show, Foster had collected the work of other artists representing water. Her role became that of guest curator. She turned to her file of other artists’ work, filling the cathedral with 200 images of water by 40 artists. The exhibition was a runaway success giving rise to a number of side movements including a very large anti-fracking initiative that Foster believes was in part responsible for New York’s rejection of the practice of fracking. In 2015, Foster decided to take a sabbatical from curating and business. She used her time to take classes and exhibit her work in group shows. Foster continues to work with multi-disciplinary groups including environmental scientists on topics relating to water. […]

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