Born 1961 in Kiel, Germany. Lives and works in Vienna. From 1987–1992 Freise studied painting at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, in the classes of Maria Lassnig and Christian Ludwig Attersee.
In her colourful paintings, Johanna Freise unfolds image scenarios that
are unflinchingly honest. In the manner of film stills, her pictures present
graceful self-reflections bearing witness to a very fine sense of all things
human. In the painting’s extraordinary directness, they remind of the early
experimental films of the Surrealist avant-garde. Composition and perspective
frequently borrow from the imagery of comics, a medium that Freise frequently
works in, transferring it to moving images. With her awarded shortfilm Kurzes
Leben (2008) she attended numerous film festivals.
