Artist Statement

Multimedia visual artist Frahn (Francesca) Koerner is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. While primarily a painter, she employs photography and computer-based processes as fundamental creative tools. Initially inspired by personal experiences, she recognized that her themes reflected broader cultural currents and emotional realities within the human condition. Her work explores loss, transformation, and resilience in relation to ongoing social and political concerns. With wit and angst, she questions… How do we navigate these challenging and uncertain times?

​

In her paintings, Koerner incorporates line within a multi layered painterly field to create shifting pictorial space. This spatial ambiguity serves as a metaphor for the spiritual and the material worlds co-existing while also introducing an element of mystery. As part of her process, she uses the computer as a “virtual sketchbook,” creating digital studies to explore color, value, and composition before developing a finished painting. The final work evolves from these visual ideas but never directly replicates them.

​

Self-portraiture is an important aspect of her work, exploring identity and what it means to be alive today. Koerner grew up riding and training horses and remains a lifelong equestrian. Dogs have also been a constant presence throughout her life. Women on horseback appear in her paintings as symbols of courage, adventure and endurance, while dogs represent companionship and protection. Another important influence on Koerner’s imagery was the death of her grandparents during Hurricane Camille in 1969. In the years that followed, during hurricane threats, her father would park his boat on a trailer outside their New Orleans home as an escape from rising floodwaters. Boats later emerged in her work as symbols of safety and transition.

​

Writing has long been central to Koerner’s practice. Passages from her personal journals have been layered into her paintings, combined with poured paint and gestural brushwork. The text is often obscured and requires a closer look to uncover. Recently, forty-six of her journals, along with selections of original poetry written between the age of fourteen and February 2022, were acquired by the Newcomb Archives at Tulane University for their permanent collection.

​

Another aspect of Koerner’s work involves having puzzles made from her photographs. She combines imagery from two puzzles by rearranging the pieces to create text, forming fragmented but two-dimensional space that feels questioning yet resonant to our time.

 

Koerner earned her BFA from Tulane University and her MFA from the University of New Orleans, majoring in painting with a minor in photography in both programs. She taught Drawing at both institutions as an adjunct professor. Her work is included in many permanent collections and has been exhibited and collected throughout the United States and Europe.

 

​

Artist Bio

Frahn Koerner, a New Orleans native, creates artwork rooted in resilience and contemporary issues.

​

Initially inspired by personal experiences, she soon recognized that her themes echo broader cultural currents in the zeitgeist. These include people's rights, ecological crises, spirituality, and the growing focus on emotional self-awareness.

​

Primarily a painter, Koerner employs both camera and computer as fundamental creative tools.

​

Her work is in the permanent collections of the Newcomb Art Museum, the Historic New Orleans Collection, and the Arts Council of New Orleans. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Contemporary Arts Center, and 3 Prospect Satellite Triennials. She was awarded and participated in residencies at the Santa Fe Art Institute and Louisiana ArtWorks.

​

She was featured in a live interview with curator Dr. David W. Robinson-Morris for the Contemporary Arts Center, StudioV Virtual Studio Tour with Frahn Koerner. Additionally, in 2024, poet Dr. Allison Campbell interviewed her for StoryCorps  to discuss her work and life.

​

She holds a BFA from Tulane University and an MFA from the University of New Orleans, where each time she majored in painting and minored in photography. She has taught at both universities.