Fredericks & Freiser is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Katelyn Ledford. Known for virtuosic trompe-l’oeil and dark humor, Ledford constructs images where artifice, vulnerability, and bravado collide. Working exclusively with oil and acrylic on canvas, she renders wood grain, masking tape, lace, and denim with the charged aura of stage props. In her hands, illusion becomes performance.

In this new body of work, Ledford depicts the backs of painting stretchers as meticulously rendered spaces where confession and composure blur. Across these surfaces, phrases like let’s go back or free are painted with deliberate clarity, yet their meaning shifts as what first reads as material truth reveals itself as a performance of authenticity. Ledford’s realism understands its own artifice; it translates sincerity the way the internet simulates intimacy, through repetition, exaggeration, and distortion.