Anna Frijstein (b. 1991) is a Dutch artist based in the UK, where she completed her MA at the Royal College of Art in London ‘19.

Frijstein’s art practice playfully evokes the bestial side of ‘socialised’ human beings. She embodies animals, plants, planets, fruits, and other beings, scrutinising human behaviour in absurdist surrealistic performances, paintings, drawings, collages, videos, and sculptural installations. Discarded cardboard, found textiles, her own clothes, and other preloved bits are ritualistically re-used as surfaces to paint and write on.

Beneath the works’ childlike gestures, and poetic light-hearted titles, lies an unsettling layer of dark humour, full of bittersweet, raging, raw feelings around socio-psychological and ecological issues. Alongside her studio practice, she works on social, interdisciplinary, and/or collaborative projects. In 2021 Frijstein was awarded the Young Talent Grant from the Mondriaan Fund in the Netherlands, and received the DYCP grant from Arts Council England in 2024 for research and new work exploring motherhood and mental-health.

Looping themes throughout her work and research include: Performance & Play (ByeBye Patriarchy!); Female Rage; Mimicry & Memes; Twisted Pedagogy**; Track&Trace Authenticity, Emotional (Un)Learning; Ecologies4All, and her latest, Motherhood & Exorcism*.

*Louise Bourgeois

**Mike Kelley