Intimate Structures: Sean Flood & Jillian Freyer

Intimate Structures pairs the work of partners Sean Flood and Jillian Freyer in conversation around the spaces and moments that shape and inform our lives. Flood's paintings and Freyer's photography both explore diverse environments – those we inhabit, those we create, and those we desire – and how these places reflect back upon us. The exhibition alternatively exudes both energy and quiet, juxtaposing scenes of bustling cities, cacophonous symphonies, peaceful gardens, and familial gatherings. 

By considering the work of Flood and Freyer in parallel, the exhibition reveals a unique dialogue between the two, one propelled by the sharing of space, both artistic and personal. The two artists enjoy a creative relationship, producing art alongside one another that speaks to the world they inhabit and experience both together and as individuals. While Flood and Freyer each focus on their own interpretations of their environs, both create work that feels personal and intimate, whether depicting peaceful moments or crowded scenes.

Feeling a deep connection to his environment, Flood builds his paintings and prints through layered moments of movement, pace, and sound, captured over time experienced in specific locations. The exhibition includes Flood's familiar cityscapes, alive with buzzing energy, but also features new ventures into more intimate settings, including Boston Symphony Orchestra rehearsals and his family's backyard garden. The BSO provides a sort of synesthetic experience for Flood, in which music inspires his application of paint. In these sessions, the artist hears new compositions and instrumental experimentations that fill the room and, subsequently, his canvas. Flood's verdant home garden images mark a transition from city living to more suburban spaces, with room to grow for flowers, vegetables, and family. Flood notes that he sees the development between the garden and his family as intertwined – each year they flourish a little more.

Freyer is drawn to the secret moments and sacred sites that comprise our most personal worlds. Through her photographs, she creates the places in which she wants to exist – composites of experiences both lived and hoped for that become enchanting liminal spaces between the real world and her camera lens. In imagining new worlds, Freyer also examines how ours fits together, focusing on natural cycles and ephemeral moments like the bending of a back, the clasping of hands, a hazy sunrise, or the turning of autumn leaves. The mundane, the overlooked, the vulnerable, and the simple attract Freyer's eye with their richness for unexplored inspiration, and their revelation of the quiet framework of our daily lives. 

In Intimate Structures, both Flood and Freyer offer their unique perspectives on the formative influence of place. While each artist's work stands independent of the other, the exhibition allows the viewer to consider the two in tandem, revealing fascinating glimpses of a shared life and shared experiences within the artists' two bodies of work. 

Intimate Structures: Sean Flood & Jillian Freyer will be on view in our main gallery space, September 19 through November 16, 2025. Please join us for an opening reception with the artists, Friday, September 19, 6-8pm.