In a contemporary art landscape often dominated by digital abstractions and detached conceptualism, Gallery MOMO has turned its spotlight toward an artist whose work demands a visceral, physical encounter. Jonathan Freemantle does not merely picture nature from a distance he brings the very geology of the earth into the studio.

Born in Cape Town in 1978 and currently based in Edinburgh, Freemantle treats landscape as a living material condition rather than a passive subject. Working with mountain rocks, fallen timber, natural indigo, and raw ochre, his practice collapses the traditional distance between the viewer and the natural environment. The materials are ground by hand directly from the sites that inform the work; the resulting canvases and sculptures do not just depict a place they carry its exact physical substance.

Freemantle’s formal journey began at age seventeen, when he earned one of just five global places for an intensive five-year apprenticeship at St Oswald’s Academy in London. There, he grounded himself in classical drawing, painting, sculpture, and sacred geometry. That rigorous structural backbone still underpins every piece he creates, providing a disciplined counterweight to the raw, unrefined earth materials he uses today.

"My work explores the relationship between my body, time, and the earth, each of which serve as materials and as inspiration," Freemantle explains. "I situate the body as an organic presence at one with the landscape, at the same time integrating the landscape physically in the human act of painting and sculpture."

His international presence has grown steadily since 2007, with solo presentations spanning London, Cape Town, Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona, Johannesburg, and Edinburgh including a major public commission for the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg.

The year 2026 marks an extraordinary institutional turning point for Freemantle. In a rare sweep, all six works from his landmark 2022 exhibition, A Mountain is Harder to Climb Than You Think, were acquired by the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, Poland. They now reside in the museum’s permanent collection alongside 20th-century giants such as Fernand Léger, Max Ernst, Hans Arp, Joseph Beuys, Lawrence Weiner, and Christian Boltanski.

Adding to this international momentum, Freemantle's works were recently selected by 18 Michelin-star chef Yannick Alléno for his newly opened restaurant, Pavyllon Lyon, in France. These additions complement an already prestigious list of public and private holdings:

• The Demarco Foundation Archive

• The Nirox Foundation

• The Private Collection of HM King Charles III

His ongoing project schedule for 2026 includes featuring in Totemic at Messums Gallery in London, as well as Exploded View presented with the Nirox Foundation and BlackBrick in Cape Town.

Beyond his individual studio output, Freemantle has consistently helped build the cultural infrastructure around him. In 2002, he established the painting department at The Art Academy in London, subsequently publishing Anatomy Made Simple for Artists in 2004. Moving into curatorial and festival leadership, he co-founded the Edinburgh International Fashion Festival in 2012 and co-directed Hazard Gallery in Johannesburg from 2015 to 2019. Since returning to Scotland in 2019, he has focused squarely on full-time studio work.

His longstanding relationship with Gallery MOMO includes the major solo exhibitions Spirit Matter (2022) and The Fallen Tree (2024).

Gallery MOMO’s spotlight on Freemantle reinforces its commitment to artists who drive transformative conversations across South African and international contemporary art. By inviting critics and collectors to look beyond individual gallery walls, the spotlight contextualises Freemantle's broader trajectory from his foundational work in Johannesburg to his current studio practice in Edinburgh.

For art enthusiasts and collectors alike, Freemantle’s work offers a grounding reminder of art's primal origin: an elemental dialogue where body, stone, light, and time converge on canvas.

Gallery MOMO is hosting press engagements, visual previews, and material studies detailing Freemantle's studio methods.