Jeremy Frey: Woven
May 24 through September 15, 2024
Portland Museum of Art, Maine, US
Tradition is ever-changing.
As the first-ever major retrospective of a Wabanaki artist in a fine art museum in the United States, Jeremy Frey: Woven is a groundbreaking exhibition in contemporary and Indigenous art. Featuring more than 50 baskets, made from natural materials like black ash and sweetgrass, Woven presents a comprehensive collection that spans a career of more than two decades. These works are intricate, mesmerizing, and expressive, emphasizing Frey’s prodigious skill and prolific creative output that honors and transforms one of the oldest art forms in the northeast.
Frey, a seventh-generation Passamaquoddy basket maker and one of the most celebrated Indigenous weavers in the country, learned traditional Wabanaki weaving techniques from his mother and apprenticeships through the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance. An important aspect of Frey’s artistic vision is his drive to build upon the past and what was once passed down to him. “I have refined the teaching of my mother beyond anything I would have considered possible,” Frey states. He pushes the boundaries of his work across concept, materials, and technique, adding “I try to create a newer and more elaborate version of my work each time I weave.”
More exhibition information can be found online here.
Image: Jeremy Frey (Passamaquoddy, born 1978), Observer, 2022, ash, birchbark, sweetgrass, porcupine quill, and dye, 13 ½ x 10 ½ x 10 ½ inches. Collection of Carole Katz, California. © Jeremy Frey. Image courtesy Eric Stoner
