ReNcontre avec Fredie

Atelier Talk with Frédérique Neuts Leroy


Sketchbook by Fredie Neuts Leroy. 2025
 
 

Hi Fredie, thank you for welcoming me in your studio. It is wonderful seeing you in person again after so many years since your graduation. What have you been doing in the past years?
 

I participated in art festivals, for example in Malta as a performer in 2018. This performance enabled me to learn more about the sand technique. During the performance, an old Maltese man told me that sand drawings were practiced during religious rituals in his childhood. Without knowing it, I was responding to the heritage theme of the event.
 

Performance, DRHA, Malta, 2018.

Photos above and left (c) Fredie



Would you like to tell us something about your life as an artist and employee. How do you combine those two fields?
 

It is a good rhythm between my two jobs: the first one gives me a kind of financial independency and regular vacations. This results into having free time I use for working on my art. Otherwise, it is challenging to work on some personal art project without assurance to expose it, but I continue to answer open calls every year until I get a chance to show my work. 
 


"ART and SCIENCE is more similar than I imagined. Some idea, experiment, process is very simple and works well in both fields. It is not really separated from what I am interested in." 

Are you still in contact with former or current AS Students?
 
I am not in contact with them for work, but it is always nice to meet some of my class mates (Vienna is small city).
 
How do you approach a new project?
 
Most of time it is a fusion of several points. I am drawing a lot on small format, based on them I go bigger and bigger. The big ones are no copies though, but a further development of the sketch. It is a big freedom to sketch without rules and see what develops in the end. I am also writing about some events, lectures, films or I pick a theoretical question of painting and try to answer it. And I collect different materials. 

 

Photo (c) Fredie

This leads me to my next question: where do you find inspiration? 
 
When I am walking. Or, while visiting Brazil, for example, I saw many different forms and also similar ones: leaves, surfers... These impressions led me to a series of paintings.

 

How would you describe your artistic style?
 
Many women artists have influenced my work: Louise Bourgeois, Joan Mitchell, Rachel Whiteread, and so many others who continue to influence my artistic work that I would define as poetic, experimental, spontaneous, intuitive.

Photos of sketchbooks.

Collage, colored Serie, painting, Open Day, Studio KQMW, 2022, Vienna. Photo (c) Fredie


2025

Vienna Art Week, Performance Losing control, with Margit Bush, Vienna. Photo (c) Fredie
Do you rather work in collectives or alone? 
 
I am less open to some collectives but I am open for collaborations with one or two other persons. Since more than one year I am trying to develop some projects with a musician. 
 
Do you think your gender influences your work or your exposure to the art-scene?
 
Our society is still focused on stereotypes: "soft objects, pink etc. is for women, dark colours, solid material is for men". At least this is my impression. But even though I paint(ed) in dark colours, I still can be a sensitive woman, which I am, especially when it comes to my own art. I also like objects which are not so perfect or clean, which are somewhat destroyed, broken or fragile too.
 
Would you call yourself "the hidden artist"?
 
One could say so. I don't do art to earn my existence, which gives me freedom. I do art for creativity and passion. If you do something without commission, you are free to dive in, to completely forget everything around you and you don't have to think about technical rules or stylish guidelines.
 
 
"I am not against the business, not at all, but I am not ready for it yet."
Fredie on not accepting gallerists' invitations to show her work.
Your passion for art started in a differend field. Can you tell us more about it?
 

It started with music when I was very young, about five years old. I followed my sister to the Conservatoire d’Aix to also learn to play the piano. Later I continued with guitar the musical theory and to pass musical degrees at a music school near Paris. Now I play guitar, bass guitar and ukulele. But I never play in front of other people, only sometimes I teach a student.

I was also very encouraged by my close friends to visit vernissages and exhibitions back in Paris. Eventually, this brought me to fine art.
 

You are travelling between countries and ateliers, have also been at residencies.

In the past I was in a student association who organized exchanges with groups of artists living in Europe. It was quite easy to find time - I had only one Job as an artist, and the budget came from the university. 

But now I have to manage with a second Job, so my travels become rare but more specific and focus on my artworks.

 
How do you manage the work and private life balance?

I harmonize my work and private life with yoga since more than 9 years; I have a cat full of curiosity so it is easy for him to turn around my art. And I need my time in the studio to calm down, to find the urge to paint. I am an autodidact painter and I love it. Painting in my studio is a kind of therapy. It can get very emotional and my paintings often have nothing to do with a concepted composition.
 
What kind of job would you like to do if you had not became an artist and teacher?
 
Biologist or geographic documentary or DJ.

Last question: Would you like to tell us something else what's important to you?
 

I follow my dreams.


Photos left+middle: Fredie's graduation project. 2019. (c) Simone Marcell
Photo right: sketches and works in her studio. 2025


 

Thank you very much, Fredie, for the nice talk here at your studio space.

 

Frédérique Neuts Leroy's Master Thesis (PDF, 33.431 KB)

FRÉDÉRIQUE NEUTS LEROY
neuts.wordpress.com
@fredieneu
Frédérique Neuts Leroy @Art&Science
Artworks online: https://www.saatchiart.com/en-at/fneutsleroy

Interview and Photos (c) if not otherwise stated: Gerda Tschœrdy Fischbach. March 2025