From photographs printed on Italian book pages to sculptures made from broken china, Fremin Gallery brings together artists whose work transforms personal stories into powerful visual experiences.

Walking into Fremin Gallery’s booth at Affordable Art Fair feels less like entering a traditional exhibition and more like stepping into a collection of stories.

Each artist represented at Booth B2 approaches materials differently, yet all of the works share a common thread: transformation. Memories become landscapes. Broken objects become sculptures. Language becomes imagery. Everyday materials become immersive experiences.

For gallery owner and artist Elisabeth Fremin, that sense of transformation is precisely what makes the presentation work.

Fremin Gallery, located in Chelsea at 23rd Street and 10th Avenue, has been operating since 2007 and has participated in Affordable Art Fair for fifteen years. Over that time, the gallery has developed a reputation for presenting artists whose work balances strong conceptual foundations with visual accessibility.

This year, five artists share the booth, each bringing a distinct perspective.

One of the first works visitors encounter belongs to artist Mercedes Jelinek. Her photographs are printed directly onto book pages, creating layered compositions that merge image, language, and memory. The series emerged during a period when Jelinek was living in Italy and teaching herself to read and speak Italian.

The photographs are self portraits, but they are also records of immersion.

Printed on the pages of the books she was reading at the time, the works capture the challenges, vulnerabilities, and discoveries that come with learning a new language and adapting to an unfamiliar culture. The pages become both surface and narrative, preserving the experience of transformation through learning.

Nearby, another artist approaches transformation from a very different angle.

Rob Strati creates artworks from broken china plates.

The project began after his wife accidentally broke a treasured plate passed down from her mother. Like many people, their first instinct was to repair it. Yet the plate could never truly return to what it had been.

Instead of hiding the damage, Strati embraced it.

Using the fragments, he created entirely new artworks. The resulting pieces become visual metaphors for resilience and reinvention. Rather than attempting to restore the past exactly as it was, they suggest another possibility: creating something beautiful from what has been broken.

The idea resonates beyond the object itself.

It speaks to loss, adaptation, and the human capacity to move forward while carrying the evidence of what came before.

Another section of the booth transports viewers to Europe’s largest shipping port through the photography of Belgian artist Didier Engels.

His images focus on the shipping containers of Antwerp, transforming industrial infrastructure into unexpectedly elegant compositions. Viewed through his lens, containers become patterns, colors, and geometric abstractions. What might normally be overlooked becomes visually compelling.

The photographs reveal a fascination with systems, movement, and the architecture of global commerce, while simultaneously turning those structures into works of art.

Turkish artist Ardan Özmenoğlu contributes another striking perspective.

Known internationally for her use of everyday materials, Özmenoğlu creates works that blur the boundaries between sculpture, installation, and painting. At the fair, visitors encounter pieces made from layers of nail polish applied to glass panels.

The result is immersive and dimensional.

As viewers move around the work, the surfaces shift and interact with light, creating an experience that feels both delicate and expansive. Her practice demonstrates how ordinary materials can be transformed into something visually extraordinary through repetition, experimentation, and imagination.

At the center of the booth is Fremin’s own work, created in collaboration with her niece, Denise Swinn.

The paintings emerged from a deeply personal moment.

After helping her mother retire to Vietnam, Fremin found herself processing the emotional distance that came with that transition. Painting became a way to reconnect with memory.

The resulting series draws inspiration from Sag Harbor and the Hamptons, places tied to her childhood and family history. Rather than depicting specific landscapes, the works evoke the sensation of remembering them.

Fremin describes the paintings as similar to the visual afterimage that appears when someone looks directly into a bright light and then closes their eyes. Fleeting bursts of color, fragments of place, and emotional impressions remain suspended between memory and abstraction.

The works are landscapes, but landscapes filtered through feeling.

That collaborative process has become central to the series.

Fremin and her niece begin each painting by discussing the emotion they want the work to communicate. They write down ideas, sketch possibilities, and explore color palettes before beginning. Often several paintings are developed simultaneously, with each artist contributing layers to the composition.

One might begin the work while the other continues it.

The paintings become conversations.

What emerges is not only a visual image but a shared emotional experience translated into color and texture.

Remarkably, Fremin and her niece only began painting together a year ago. Since then, they have sold forty eight works from a pastel series that quickly found an audience.

That rapid success reflects something deeper than market demand.

It reflects authenticity.

The paintings are rooted in memory, family, and emotional honesty. Viewers respond because they recognize those feelings, even if the landscapes themselves belong to someone else’s story.

Fremin’s creative process mirrors her curatorial philosophy.

Whether she is creating her own work or presenting the work of others, she is interested in transformation, connection, and storytelling. She values artists who are willing to experiment, who can take personal experiences and turn them into something universal.

As both a gallery owner and artist, she understands the delicate balance between business and creativity. After years of running a successful gallery, she intentionally stepped deeper into her own artistic practice, allowing herself the freedom to create while continuing to support other artists.

That dual perspective gives Fremin Gallery a distinctive character.

The booth feels carefully curated but never rigid. Each artist brings a unique voice, yet together they create a larger conversation about memory, change, adaptation, and possibility.

Whether it is a language learned in a foreign country, a family heirloom transformed after an accident, industrial structures reframed through photography, everyday materials elevated into art, or childhood landscapes remembered through color, every work in the booth tells a story of becoming.

At its core, Fremin Gallery reminds viewers that art often begins with transformation.

Something breaks.

Something changes.

Something is remembered.

And from that experience, something entirely new can emerge.

About Tarik Talk Podcast

Tarik Talk Podcast takes listeners inside museums, galleries, artist studios, art fairs, and creative spaces around the world through conversations with artists, curators, collectors, cultural leaders, and creative professionals. Hosted by artist and podcaster Tarik Mendes, the show has featured more than 200 episodes across 50 seasons, filmed in over 10 countries and heard by audiences worldwide.