Fredericka Foster

 Fredericka Foster is an American artist, curator and water activist recognized for her contributions to oil painting and photography. She has been honored as a River Warrior by the Lewis Pugh Foundation for her efforts in raising "awareness about water's profound impact on our socio-economic, environmental, and subconscious realm."

Early life and education
A graduate of the University of Washington, Foster pursued her studies and served as an instructor at the Factory of Visual Arts, a professional art school that provided an alternative to conventional university art education in Seattle.

Career
As a painter, photographer and curator, Foster focuses on the theme of water, using her art to raise awareness and explore its pivotal role in shaping the world socioeconomically, environmentally, and subconsciously. Foster initially gained recognition for her photography, particularly for her candid portrayal of older couples "at ease in aging skin." An accomplished colorist using a limited palette and many layers of paint, working within "the romantic landscape tradition of Dove, Hartley, Burchfield and O'Keeffe," Carter Ratcliff notes, though "labeled a realist, a recorder of visible facts, she turns out to be a visionary." Having exhibited her work since the late 1970s, Foster's paintings and installations in the 1990s were inspired by the AIDS epidemic, centering on themes of healing and mortality. Her artistic expression is also influenced by Buddhist practice, evident in her active participation in public discussions, including with composer Philip Glass, on the intersection of Buddhist practice and art.

Foster has been featured in several notable solo exhibitions, include five Water Way shows at the Fischbach Gallery in New York City and an exhibition accompanied by a lecture at the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries. She has participated in numerous group shows spanning the United States and Europe. Among these, she contributed to The Flag Project for the inauguration of the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City, as well as the "groundbreaking" The Christa Project: Manifesting Divine Bodies on the feminine divine, and the Value of Sanctuary: Building a House Without Walls, both held at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. Foster was selected to participate in the I AM WATER 2022 juried exhibition by Ecoartspace, featuring a series of billboard images in New York and Massachusetts that emphasized water as a fundamental source of life. Her oil painting Molten Sea was featured on a billboard in Manhattan. Foster was also in group exhibitions at ecoartspace in New Mexico, ecoconsciousness and the Earthkeepers Handbook, in respectively, 2020 and 2023; and in New York, Scape - Land City, Sea and Sky in Southhold in 2022, and Detour IV at East End Arts in Riverhead in 2023.

Foster is also known for her role curating and participating in The Value of Water, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. The largest exhibition to ever appear at the cathedral, it anchored a year long initiative by the cathedral on our dependence upon water. Over forty artists were featured, including Jenny Holzer, Robert Longo, Mark Rothko, William Kentridge, April Gornik, Kara Walker, Kiki Smith, Pat Steir, Edwina Sandys, Alice Dalton Brown, Teresita Fernandez, Eiko Otake and Bill Viola.

Foster and artist Hilda O'Connell contributed to Art Beyond Sight's publication Art Beyond Sight: A Resource Guide to Art, Creativity, and Visual Impairment, an educational book and compact disk designed to provide visual experiences to individuals with impaired sight and blind artists. A corresponding video, Art Beyond Sight: A Demonstration of Practical Techniques, was co-produced with the Museum of Modern Art.

Her work is held in private and public collections including the Garrison Institute, Artsbridge and the Lambertville Chamber of Commerce, Commerce Bancshares, Merck and Company, Microsoft Corporation, and General Electric.

Activism
Foster actively collaborates with artists, scientists and non-profit organizations to raise awareness on issues related to water, the environment, pollution, and climate change. In the 1970s, she observed the profound impact of water on the members of the Duwamish along the Seattle River. In response to government condemnation of the tribe's houseboat residences and adjacent ancestral territories, she endorsed their nonviolent demonstrations with a letter-writing campaign.

To educate about the water crisis and water scarcity, she presented her work to two hundred and fifty scientists, staged a performance based on the 2017 sewage spill into Puget Sound at the Sage Assembly 2017, Exploring a Catastrophe to Water Through Science and Art; and conducted an exhibition and talk at the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries. Her work, Like a Circle in Water, part of the Elements video series commissioned by the Buddhist Tricycle Foundation in 2014, was an official selection of the Awareness Festival and Blue Ocean Film Festival. Foster has been interviewed for her role as a cultural activist and has also lectured on art and activism.

Foster founded and curates Think About Water, a collective of ecological artists and activists which spotlights their work using water as their subject or medium with a website and exhibitions. Members include indigenous water protectors Charlotte Coté, and Dr. Kelsey Leonard; Basia Irland, Aviva Rahmani, Betsy Damon, Diane Burko, Leila Daw, Stacy Levy, Meridel Rubenstein, Rosalyn Driscoll, Doug Fogelson, Giana Pilar González, Rachel Havrelock, Susan Hoffman Fishman, Fritz Horstman, Sant Khalsa, Ellen Kozak, Stacy Levy, Anna Macleod, Ilana Manolson, Lauren Rosenthal McManus, Randal Nichols, Dixie Peaslee, Jaanika Peerna, Aviva Rahmani, Lisa Reindorf, Naoe Suzuki, Linda Troelle, Leslie Sobel and Adam Wolpert. In April 2023 Foster curated The Rivers exhibition which complemented the Pathways to Planetary Health Initiative hosted at the Garrison Institute. Ten artists affiliated with Think About Water collaborated to underscore the imminent threats confronting freshwater ecosystems.

Films

 * Like a Circle in Water, Part of the Elements series, commissioned by the Tricycle Foundation, directed by Andrew Chan Gladstone; summer, 2014; official selection: The Awareness Film Festival, Los Angeles, California; and the Blue Ocean Film Festival, St. Petersburg, Florida.
 * Mary Mary, Foster and Christopher Young, 1999; official selection: Northampton Independent Film Festival, Short Program #4: Surreal Reels and the Seattle Underground Film Festival.
 * The Spiritual Journey: Interfaith Perspectives, Foster paintings shown throughout, Galen Films/Romano Productions, presented to the Parliament of the World's Religions by the Auburn Theological Seminary and the Temple of Understanding, 2000.

Awards

 * 1998, The Inn at Phillips Mill award, Phillips Mill Photographic Exhibition; New Hope, Pennsylvania
 * 1993, First prize, National Polaroid Transfer Exhibition; Kirkland, Washington
 * 1989, Grand prize, Harvest of Arts, Bellevue, Washington; Second prize, Pacific Northwest Arts and Crafts Fair, Bellevue, Washington
 * 1981, Second prize, Heart of the City, Seattle, Washington