Contact Us
Media Inquiries:
AU Communications
aumedia@american.edu
202-885-5950
Gods & Monsters
Works by Viola Frey
Curated by Squeak Carnwath
Originally scheduled April 4-May 24, 2020
This exhibition was cancelled to contain the spread of COVID-19 in 2020.
Video , featuring essay by Mark Van Proyen.
Gallery Talk: Gods & Monsters
Featuring panelists: Squeak Carnwath, Exhibition Curator, Cynthia de Bos, Director of Collections and Archives, Artists’ Legacy Foundation, Jack Rasmussen, AU Museum Director & Curator, and Mark Van Proyen, Associate Professor of Painting at the San Francisco Art Institute, and exhibition catalog essayist.
Viola Frey, Untitled (Blue Hands, Hat of Figurines), Greedy Grandmother Series, 1980. Oil and acrylic on paper, 30 x 22 1/2 in. ALF no. VF-0330WP. Artists’ Legacy Foundation, Oakland, CA. Art © /Licensed by ARS, New York. Photograph by M. Lee Fatherree.
Viola Frey, Untitled (Frowning Vessel Face), c. 1975-1980. Ceramic. 11 1/2 x 12 x 6 in. ALF no. VF-0337CSS. Artists’ Legacy Foundation, Oakland, CA. Art © / Licensed by ARS, New York. Photograph by M. Lee Fatherree.
Viola Frey, Untitled (Oval Head, Hat, Leaf Hands), 1979. Ceramic and glazes, 60 1/2 x 25 x 14 1/2 in. ALF no. VF-0448CSS. Artists’ Legacy Foundation, Oakland, CA. Art © / Licensed by ARS, New York.
Viola Frey, Goggle Eyes, 1979–1980. Ceramic and glazes, 30 x 13 1/2 x 14 in. ALF no. VF-0027CSS. Artists’ Legacy Foundation, Oakland, CA. Art © / Licensed by ARS, New York. Photograph by M. Lee Fatherree.
Viola Frey, Dancing Monster Head, 1977. Ceramic and glazes, 25 1/2 x 25 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. ALF no. VF-0107P. Artists’ Legacy Foundation, Oakland, CA. Art © / Licensed by ARS, New York.
Viola Frey, Father Doll, Shadow Box Figures Series, 1977. Ceramic and glazes, 23 1/2 x 9 x 6 1/2 in. ALF no. VF-0327CSS. Artists’ Legacy Foundation, Oakland, CA. Art © / Licensed by ARS, New York.
Viola Frey, Ming Blue and White, 1981. Oil and acrylic on paper, 30 x 22 1/2 in. ALF no. VF-0327WP. Artists’ Legacy Foundation, Oakland, CA. Art © / Licensed by ARS, New York. Photograph by M. Lee Fatherree.
Viola Frey, Untitled (Slide 361), 1975 , reprinted 2020. Giclee print, 5 x 3 1/2 in. ALF no. VFA-9005PH. Artists’ Legacy Foundation, Oakland, CA. Art © / Licensed by ARS, New York.
Viola Frey, Untitled (Slide 110), 1975, reprinted 2020. Giclee print, 3 1/2 x 5 in. ALF no. VFA-9004PH. Artists’ Legacy Foundation, Oakland, CA. Art © / Licensed by ARS, New York.
Viola Frey, Untitled (Three Heads, Snake in Dish), c. 1975–1980. Ceramic and slip, 15 x 9 x 3 1/2 in. ALF no. VF-0340CSS. Artists’ Legacy Foundation, Oakland, CA. Art © / Licensed by ARS, New York. Photograph by M. Lee Fatherree.
Gods & Monsters explores the influence of Viola Frey’s (1933-2004) early history and the development of her personal iconography. Frey's idiosyncratic textures, colors, and compositions constantly evolved, eventually coalescing as the monumental sculptures for which she is best known. Along the way, her deep interest in art history informed an exploration of figures resembling gods, deities, monsters, and humans. In the words of art critic Mark Van Proyen, the intensely personal aspects of her work of the 1960s-1970s "were strategically submerged, muted and sublimated, always lurking below the works’ lustrous surfaces, but never so far as to be unseen.” Many of the works on view have not been exhibited, offering visitors an inside look at works that were held closely in the studio.