Nancy Hoffman Gallery

Viola Frey at Nancy Hoffman Gallery

September 21 - October 26, 2002

Viola Frey exhibits new works of ceramic sculpture, tile walls and pastel drawings at Nancy Hoffman Gallery, September 21 through October 26, 2002. 		Authoritative Man
Viola Frey, Authoritative Man, 2002,
ceramic, 120 x 46 x 22 inches
Reflective Woman
Viola Frey, Reflective Woman II, 2002,
ceramic, 91 x 28 x 23 inches		 Frey's larger than life men and women are ordinary, thinking, reflective beings who gaze out at the world while their faces reveal an inner life marked and lined by matters of consequence. In their heroic scale they transport the viewer to a time when everything was larger than life itself, the innocent child peering upwards always.
This sense of wonder pervades Frey's new body of work. In her seventh decade, Frey's work surges with a new life force. Figures sit in positions almost impossible to wield and balance in clay; one reclining nude woman is all curves and sinews from arms, to legs, to muscles. Pulsing with a sensuality the artist rarely allows to enter the figures. Seated Woman
Viola Frey, Seated Woman, 2002,
ceramic, 67 x 72 x 49 inches
reclining Woman Hand Outstretched
Viola Frey, Reclining Woman Hand Outstretched, 2002,
ceramic, 28 x 98 x 48 inches
Man Kicking World
Viola Frey, Man Kicking World, 2002, ceramic, 68 x 83 x 138 inches
Man Kicking World is exactly that, a seated man in blue power suit whose jacket relaxes and ripples on the ground as he raises one leg as if to kick a ball onto the field, but the ball in this case is a world five feet in diameter. Knee bent, he connects with the sphere. Could this be Frey's way of depicting contemporary man in his arrogance, toppling ideas, images, philosophies, thinking he can change the world or kick it aside?
Frey's monumental ceramic sculpture of men, women and amphorae are not only larger-than-life in scale but also brighter than life in their spirited glaze and palette. Women stand with hands at their sides, looking out at the world as everywoman. Each woman at eight feet in height with abundant, waving tresses in clay-glazed pink, red, blue, yellow, when clothed, wears dresses inspired by '50s fashion, though totally invented by the artist. Questioning Man I
Viola Frey, Questioning Man I, 2002,
ceramic, 106 x 39 x 24 inches
Reflective Woman I
Viola Frey, Reflective Woman I, 2002,
ceramic, 94 x 29 x 24 inches

To clothe the standing ladies, Frey's joy of palette is undeniable, not to mention her pure joy of "painting;" dabs here, dots there, splashes of color, convey energy and life force in the artist's confident, wily and original juxtapositions. Shy Frey isn't, nor does she steer clear of outrage in selecting form or color. Women stand next to amphorae almost seven feet in height, protectors of vessels associated with art of antiquity.
Amphorae, too, celebrate the human figure, Frey's subject object, love. The artist's own version of a dance of life, a procession of figures bedecks these monumental urns, men in blue power suits, women in dresses and women in their suit of power--according to Frey's philosophy--their birthday suits of pink, accompanied by her signature abstract passages of color, lines, spots and dots. Questioning Man II
Viola Frey, Questioning Man II, 2002,
ceramic, 108 x 36 x 18 inches
Urn VF Iconography
Viola Frey, Urn VF Iconography, 2002,
ceramic, 92 x 42 x 44 inches		 These are vessels of power and beauty that, like the figures, defy a conventional sense of scale.
Viola Frey Exhibition 2002, Installation view at Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York
Three tile walls punctuate the exhibition along with three pastel diptych drawings. Frey draws in glaze onto hand-made tiles that sit flat on the walls. In her tile walls that measure 5x6 feet or 5x10 feet, and in her drawings, the artist celebrates the human figure in its infinite possibility for pose, dialogue, juxtaposition, action and interaction. World Civilization Study in Blue
Viola Frey, World Civilization: Study in Blue,
2002, ceramic tile, 91 x 120 inches
World Civilization Man and Figurines
Viola Frey, World Civilization: Man and Figurines,
2002, ceramic tile, 50 x 50 inches

 World Civilization Woman Pouring Water
Viola Frey, World Civilization: Woman Pouring Water,
2002, ceramic tile, 46 x 46 inches
Men in blue power suits face women in birthday suits, surrounded by Frey's figurines and a riot of color. The walls, like Frey's sculptures, emanate life force, sometimes with fighting men, at others with windows out to another world where figures look back at the viewer, the viewer thus viewed by the artist.
In her new sculptures, works from the last three years, Viola Frey proves again her power as an artist in a territory all her own. World II
Viola Frey, World II, 2002, ceramic, 52 inches diameter
Confident Man
Viola Frey, Confident Man, 2002,
ceramic, 68 x 74 x 72 inches		 Viola Frey's work has been widely shown throughout the country at the Albany Museum of Art, Georgia; American Craft Museum, New York; Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Alaska; The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi; Bayly Art Museum, Charlottesville, Virginia; Brevard Museum of Art and Science, Melbourne, Florida; The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, Florida; Chicago Public Library Cultural Center, Illinois; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California; Dahl Fine Arts Center, Rapid City, South Dakota;
DeCordova and Dana Museum and Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts; Fresno Museum of Art, California; Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, New Jersey; Heckscher Museum, Huntington, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana; Madison Art Center, Wisconsin; Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Museum of Ceramic Art, Baltimore, Maryland; Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, New York; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach; Oakland Museum of Art, California; Pewabic Pottery, Detroit; Queens Museum, Flushing, New York; Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona; Portland Art Museum, Oregon; The Queens Museum, New York; St. Louis Museum of Art, Missouri; World Civilization Reflective Woman
Viola Frey, World Civilization: Reflective Woman,
2002, ceramic, 44 x 50 inches
World Civilization Woman and Figurines
Viola Frey, World Civilization: Women and Figurines,
2002, ceramic, 44 x 60 inches		 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; Santa Barbara Museum, California; Seattle Art Museum, Washington; Smithsonian Institution, Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Tucson Museum of Art, Arizona; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; Western Gallery, Western Washington University, Bellingham; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Wichita Center for the Arts, Kansas; among others; and abroad at the American Center, Paris; Daimaru Museum of Art, Osaka-Umeda; Hall du Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art; Isetan Museum of Art, Tokyo; Victoria and Albert Museum in London; and LaForet Museum, Koto-ku, Tokyo.
Viola Frey's work is represented in numerous public collections, among them: American Craft Museum, New York; The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi; The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; The Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; World Civilization Man in Blue Suit
Viola Frey, World Civilization: Man in Blue Suit,
2002, ceramic, 41 x 60 inches

Viola Frey, Amphora (Men in Power Suits)
2001-2002, ceramic, 81 x 50 x 50 inches		 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, Minnesota; Museum of Arts and Sciences, Macon, Georgia; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Oakland Museum, California; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; The Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville; Western Gallery, Western Washington University, Bellingham; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and Wichita Cener for the Arts, Kansas.
Abroad, Viola Frey's work is included in the collections of Manufacture de Sevres, Paris; Museum Bellrive, Zurich and The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shigaraki, Japan.

Viola Frey is has been awarded two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and received an Award of Honor in Sculpture from the Arts Commission of San Francisco.
Viola Frey, Amphora (Men in Power Suits)
2001-2002, ceramic, 81 x 50 x 50 inches
More Information on Viola Frey  
Viola Frey Exhibition 2004 - 2005  
Biography on Viola Frey  
World Civilization Bench Figures and Figurines

Viola Frey, World Civilization Bench: Figures, Figurines, 2002, ceramic, 17 x 74 x 66 inches