The Paul Thiebaud Gallery is pleased to present Kim Frohsin: Figures at Ease, an exhibition of recent figure drawings by Kim Frohsin, on view from May 2 through June 24, 2023. Frohsin has often been described as a third generation Bay Area Figurative artist; she has been living in San Francisco since the early 1990s and her artistic practice is rooted in traditional live figure drawing. It is easy to draw similarities between her work and that of Bay Area Figurative masters Richard Diebenkorn or David Park, but there persists a bold femininity within her work. She continues to push boundaries and experiment with mediums including graphite, ink wash, and collage— giving her figures further dimension, depth, and texture.    

Drawing almost exclusively from the female model, Frohsin acknowledges an erotic charge may be present, although she is more interested in the spiritual and ethereal aspects of the model. She is known to prompt her models to translate philosophical and existential questions into poses. In this body of work, several drawings feature models in surprising poses, from the back or limbs twisted. Frohsin explains her intention: “As if these women/bodies, found in my lines, present as transcendent, angelic entities: anonymous figures floating in space and time.”   

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Frohsin studied at San Diego State University, l’Institut pour les Etudiants Etrangers, Aix-en-Provence, and Academy of Art, San Francisco.