ONE FRIARY, BRISTOL
Artist: Frea Buckler
Client: Bankfoot APAM
Date: 2026
Location: Bristol Temple Meads
A bold new sculpture by Bristol-based artist Frea Buckler brings colour, movement and energy to One Friary, a new workplace development beside Bristol Temple Meads station.
Developed alongside the architecture from an early stage, Buckler’s bold, colourful sculpture responds to the movement, energy and changing character of this important gateway into the city.
Suspended within the building’s double-height entrance atrium, the work appears to pass through the glazed façade, folding between inside and outside and creating a dynamic relationship with the architecture.
“I became interested in this idea of a form that appears to enter and exit the architecture, coming through the windows and folding back around the interior atrium.”
— Frea Buckler
Buckler developed the work through drawing, collage, screen printing and model-making, exploring how colour, shape and composition could translate from her two-dimensional practice into sculpture at an architectural scale. Practical constraints became part of the creative process, helping the work evolve through a process of testing, making and experimentation.
The commission marks a significant development in Buckler’s practice and forms an integral part of the experience of One Friary, creating a distinctive new artwork at one of Bristol’s busiest points of arrival and departure.
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About the artist
Frea Buckler’s practice spans abstract painting, printmaking, sculpture, installation and public art. Working with colour, form and found materials, she creates compositions that move between two and three dimensions. Surfaces, structures and objects are brought together through a language of colour, rhythm and balance, often incorporating reused or discarded materials. The work explores improvisation, adaptation and transformation, allowing materials and ideas to shift and evolve through the process of making.
Frea Buckler studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins and an MA in Multidisciplinary Printmaking at the UWE Bristol. She has presented solo shows in London, Dublin, Brussels and the USA. She has participated in group shows internationally with galleries including Swinton Gallery, Madrid, Espace Transmission, Montreal and Davidson Gallery, New York.
She has been commissioned for projects by organisations including Facebook, Imperial Health Charity, Ginkgo Projects and Denver Art Museum. Her work is held in many private collections. Public collections include the University of Warwick, University of Edinburgh, Trinity College Dublin, Imperial Health Charity Collection, The National Archives of Ireland and the Office of Public Works, Ireland. Frea currently lives and works in Bristol.