Ash Fritzsche is a tradeswoman and artist who blends her backgrounds to create a practice of storytelling and secret-keeping. Using painting, installation and traditional folk arts, she collages motif within borrowed structures of narrative composition—nodding to everything from the registers of ancient Greek sarcophagi to the friendship quilts of American frontierswomen.

​

Esoteric symbols and a personal cipher thwart her legibility as she reckons with the past and imagines a new future in a personal dance between hope, grief and gratitude. 

 

 

 

 

CV

​

born 1989, Melbourne, Australia

lives and works in Philadelphia, PA

​

solo exhibitions

 

2011 Building Camp, No Vacancy Project Space, Melbourne, Australia

 

selected group exhibitions 

​

2025 18 Small Paintings, Race St Cafe, Philadelphia, PA

2025 Real Friends, Glode Dye Arts, Philadelphia, PA 

2025 Stumbling Through, DVAA, Philadelphia, PA 

2024 DAY JOBS + QUEER UTOPIAS, DVAA, Philadelphia, PA 

2024 Blue Mountain Gallery 2024 Summer Juried Exhibition, New York, NY

2024 12th Annual Juried Exhibition, Cerulean Arts, Philadelphia, PA 

2024 Desire Lines, Information Space, Philadelphia, PA 

2024 Rolling Resistance, DVAA, Philadelphia, PA

2024 Forecast Form, DVAA, Philadelphia, PA

2023 Wunderkammer, Wavelength Space, Chattanooga, TN

2023 ACPS Juried Fall Show, The Plastic Club, Philadelphia, PA

2023 Formations, DVAA, Philadelphia, PA

2023 Art on Paper Fair, Petrichor Press, New York, NY 

2023 Elemental Edifices, Wavelength Space, Chattanooga, TN 

2023 Flip the System, Studio 34, Philadelphia, PA

2023 Florida Printmakers Society Biennial, Miami, FL

​

PUBLICATIONS

 

2025 Bernadette 2, New York, NY

2024 “Devour, Stones,” Bernadette Magazine, New York, NY

          

HONORS

 

2025 James Bernard Haggarty Scholarship, NYC Crit Club, 2025

2024 Artists for Artists Global POST 2024 Scholarship, Philadelphia, PA

2024 Penland Winter Residency Fellowship, Penland, NC

2023 Linda Lee Altar Fellow, DVAA, Philadelphia, PA

2023 Penland Metals Scholarship Fund Scholarship Recipient, Penland, NC

2012 Jane Brooks Prize for Excellence in Painting, Mount Holyoke College, MA

2012 Leonard DeLonga Prize for Excellence in Studio Arts, Mount Holyoke College, MA

2012 Mary Lyons Scholar, Mount Holyoke College, MA

2009 Arches Paper Prize, Arches Student Print Exhibition, Boston, MA

​

CURATORIAL 

 

2025 a tuning fork; she’s looking out, Information Space, Philadelphia, PA 

2024 DAY JOBS + QUEER UTOPIAS, DVAA, Philadelphia, PA 

2024 5853: Pop-up Gallery, Philadelphia, PA