Jeremy Frey
Jeremy Frey (b. 1978, Passamaquoddy Indian Township Reservation, Maine) is one of the foremost Passamaquoddy craftspeople of his generation. A descendant of a long line of Indigenous weavers, Frey learned traditional Wabanaki methods from his mother and by apprenticing at the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance. Woven from natural materials that the artist himself forages, such as sweetgrass and wood from brown ash trees, Frey’s vessels are characterized by subtle forms, delicately layered colors, and elaborate weaves. Building on and experimenting with the material histories of Wabanaki basketry, the artist’s work is simultaneously in dialogue with the formal language of Greek and Roman pottery and with contemporary sculpture’s emphasis on materiality, form, and variation within repetition. Frey lives in Maine.
The first solo show of Frey’s work was held at Karma, New York, in 2023. His first institutional solo exhibition, Jeremy Frey: Woven, which debuted at the Portland Museum of Art, Maine, is on view at the Art Institute of Chicago through February 2025. In June 2025, Woven will travel to the Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut (2023). Frey won Best of Show at the Santa Fe Indian Market in 2011, marking the first time a basketmaker achieved this honor in the market’s ninety-year history. That same year, Frey won Best of Show and at the Heard Museum Indian Guild Fair and Market in Phoenix, Arizona, which he would repeat in 2015, making him the first artist ever to do so. Frey’s work is held in the public collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Denver Art Museum, Colorado; Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Portland Museum of Art, Maine; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; University of Delaware Special Collections & Museums; and Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, among others.
Born 1978, Passamaquoddy Indian Township Reservation, Maine
Lives and works in Maine
EDUCATION
2007-Present
Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (Master Basketmaker), Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance
2010
AA in Automotive Technology and General Technology, Washington County Community College
2002-2004
Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (Apprentice), Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024
Karma, Los Angeles, Unbound
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine, Jeremy Frey: Woven, May 24, 2024–September 15, 2024; Art Institute of Chicago, October 26, 2024–February 10, 2025 (traveling exhibition)
2023
Karma, New York, Out of the Woods
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland, Finding Home
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Art of Native America
70 Main Street, Thomaston, Maine, A Particular Kind of Heaven
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, To Take Shape and Meaning: Form and Design in American Indian Art
2023
Western Carolina University Fine Art Museum, Cullowhee, North Carolina, Spark of the Eagle Dancer: The Collecting Legacy of Lambert Wilson
Object & Thing at LongHouse, East Hampton, New York, A Summer Arrangement
2022
The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum of American, Washington, D.C., Crafting A Better World
deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts, New England Triennial
2021
Monson Arts, Maine, Always Home: Traditional Wabanaki Arts
2019
Portland Museum of Art, Maine, Open-Ended: New Acquisitions at the PMA
Space Gallery, Portland, Maine, Carry ME
2018
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Hear My Voice: Native American Art of the Past and Present
Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, Hear My Voice: Native American Art of the Past and Present
2015
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine, Portland Museum of Art Biennial: you can’t get there from here
Maine Historical Society, Portland, Maine, Baskets from the Dawnland: Weaving the past and future together
Maine Fiber Arts, Topsham, Maine, Maine Indian Basketry Exhibition
2012
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation 3
Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA, Rethink! American Indian Art
Abbe Museum, Bar Harbor, Maine, Transcending Traditions: The Next Generation and Maine Indian Basketry,
co-organized by Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance and the Hudson Museum
2008
Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, New Hampsire
2006
Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington, D.C. Demonstrator, Featured Artist
2003
National Museum of the American Indian, New York
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Abbe Museum, Bar Harbor, Maine
The Art Institute of Chicago
Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine
Denver Art Museum
Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine
Heard Museum, Phoenix
Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, New Hampshire
Hudson Museum, Orono, Maine
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Michigan State University Museum, East Lansing
Portland Museum of Art, Maine
Rollins Museum of Art, Orlando
Smithsonian, National Museum of the American Indian, Washington D.C.
Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond
AWARDS
2024
Rappaport Prize, Boston
2019
Cumming Award for Artistic Excellence, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
2015
Best in show Heard Indian Fair Market
2014
Best of basketry Santa Fe Indian Market
Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF) Artist Fellowship
2012
Best of Basketry at Heard Indian Fair and Market
2011
Best in Show at Santa Fe Indian Market
Best in Show at Heard Indian Fair Market
2010
United States Artists Ford Foundation Fellow
2004, 2005
First Place in Basketry, Celebration of Basketry, Heard Museum, AZ
