Audrey Francis’ diverse practice includes painting, works on paper, collage, sculpture, and textile art. Thematically her work explores a range of social factors including gender, politics of the body, sexuality, ideas of beauty, and her Latina heritage. Narrative—combined with fashion, pattern, and nature—often drives her painterly, chromatically-rich works. Francis cites outsider/folk art, modern narrative figural work, and baroque portraiture as influences.
Francis’ work has been featured in over fifty exhibitions nationally, and may be found in private and corporate collections worldwide including the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in New York. Recent exhibitions include Mountain High, Valley Low: Artists of The Hudson Valley and The Magic Garden, both at LABspace, Hillsdale, NY; Infinite Uncertainty, The Opalka Gallery, Sage College, Albany, NY; LatinX, The Howland Cultural Center, Beacon, NY; Showcase, The Moviehouse, Millerton, NY; and Vista Panoramico, Ann Street Gallery, Newburgh, NY. Francis’ Napa Mundi is a permanent installation at the Cambria Hotel, Napa Valley, CA.
Francis holds an MFA in Painting from SUNY New Paltz, New Paltz, NY and a BFA in Illustration from Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY. She has taught painting at SUNY New Paltz and design at Dutchess Community College, Poughkeepsie, NY. She is the recipient of various awards and honors, most recently the Research and Creative Projects Award, SUNY; The Joan Mitchell Award Nomination; and the Barrett Art Center Award, Poughkeepsie, NY. Francis has been an artist in residence at the Nantucket Island School of Design & The Arts, Nantucket Island, MA. She is based in New York’s Hudson Valley.