During London Frieze week 2026 FreddieFoulkes Gallery will present an off-site solo exhibition by newly-represented gallery artist Emily Wilcock at HOLDFAST, 23 Chepstow Corner, London, W2 4XE.
Emily Wilcock
Dream in Bright Filament, 2026, oil on canvas,
130 × 90 cm
In collaboration with HOLD FAST, FreddieFoulkes Gallery is very pleased to present Untamed Line, Emily Wilcock’s first solo exhibition since joining the gallery this past summer.
The exhibition brings together twelve oil paintings and five ink drawings that broadly exemplify Wilcock’s practice over the past two years. Hanging throughout HOLD FAST’s two floors, these artworks are presented as though in a ‘salon’ or living area, broadly regarded as an atypical gallery setting in 2026.
The majority of the exhibition’s large scale paintings are exhibited on the gallery’s ground floor. Dream in Bright Filament, which was previously exhibited at FreddieFoulkes Gallery as part of its inaugural group exhibition in March this year, dominates the back wall. It is a painting of two faces: one, the top one, innocently yet self-assuredly looks out, while the other, beneath it and inverted, is more sparse and angular in its articulation. The painting may represent the duality of man, the conscious and the subconscious, a saint and sinner, or the self and former self. Perhaps it is besides the point, but the work is also interestingly painted - from the reverse. This is a process also employed in the paintings Rainwashed Memory and First Contact, both encountered at the front of the gallery.
Elsewhere on the ground floor, Angry Girls I and II, two expressive nigh on explicit paintings, are remarkable examples of Wilcock’s experimentation with material. Scraps of old cloth are nonchalantly applied to the canvas, clothing these dual-headed figures in flux. The dual-headed figure is a recurring motif, appearing again in the large painting Fractured Sky Mirror and in the three silkscreen printed and oil-painted canvases exhibited across the two floors.
Another key feature in the exhibition is Wilcock’s draughtsmanship, exemplified by five ink drawings. Drawn using a quill, these works offer a tenderness and intimacy which seems less evident in the paintings. Figures here are either isolated, with eyes or hands distorted or multiplied, or, in the case of Whispering Kisses, engaged in true if subtly fraught embrace.
Exhibited in the context of design furniture and other objets d’art, these artworks of various materials and moods offer unbounded excitement and honesty, such is characteristic of the work of Emily Wilcock.
'First Contact', 2026, oil on canvas, 130 x 90 cm
'Whispering Kisses', 2026, ink on paper, 55.5 x 44.5 cm (framed)
'Vanishing Vision', 2026, oil and silkscreen print on canvas, 52 x 78 cm
'Golden Mouthed', 2026, ink on paper, 55.5 x 44.5 cm (framed)
'Dream in Bright Filament', 2026, oil on canvas, 130 x 90 cm
'Ghost Memory', 2026, oil and silkscreen print on canvas, 52 x 78 cm
'Fractured Sky Mirror', 2026, oil on canvas, 127 x 101 cm
'Tidal Pull', 2026, oil on canvas, 110 x 85 cm
'Rain Washed Memory', 2026, oil on canvas, 101 x 54.5 cm
'Tenterhands', 2026, ink on paper, 55.5 x 45.5 cm (framed)