Anna Freeman Bentley is a contemporary British painter known for her vibrant depictions of interior spaces. Her thick, opaque brushwork and interest in depicting reflective surfaces conjures Manet’s famous work, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882). Bentley’s use of mirrors and doorframes in her work allude to the hidden meanings underneath the surface of this lavishly painted settings. “That idea of longing and dislocation in space, in a location, is why mirrors become really powerful in architecture; because of the difference between what is real and what is reflected,” she said. “And if you paint them without giving any hierarchy to the reflected or to the physical surface, then it becomes hard to read and I really enjoy that.” Born in 1982 in London, United Kingdom, the artist then moved to Thailand, where she spent most of her childhood. Through the BTEC Diploma Art Foundation, she returned to England to study at Camberwell College of Arts in London. There, Bentley began painting abandoned buildings on cardboard, a motif she would carry on for her early career. The following year she studied at Kunsthochschule Weissensee in Berlin, and was enraptured with the emptiness found in Baroque architecture. She went on to receive her BFA from Chelsea College of Art and Design in London, and then an MFA in painting at the Royal College of Art in London. The artist currently works and resides in London, United Kingdom. Bentley’s works are held in the collection of the Saatchi Gallery in London, among other institutions.