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Contemporary Art

Loosely defined as the art of today or the art of our lifetime, the term “contemporary art” is usually used more specifically to describe artworks created since the 1980s or 1990s. For collection purposes, the Frye Art Museum currently delineates the scope as 1990 to the present. In the more general sense, the Frye has collected and exhibited contemporary—or contemporaneous—art since its opening in 1952. This commitment to the art and culture of the present was catalyzed by Museum founders Charles and Emma Frye, who amassed a collection of paintings made within their own lifetimes and often purchased works directly from living artists. Over the last seven decades, directors of the Museum have each brought their own interests and interpretations to bear on the Frye’s engagement with contemporary art and thereby shaped a distinctive collection. Prior to the tenure of Elsa “Midge” Bowman (Director, 2004–09), and often counter to dominant trends in art of the time, the Frye’s leadership focused exclusively on exhibiting and collecting representational art, citing Charles and Emma Frye’s preferences for figurative and landscape painting. Under Bowman’s direction, the exhibitions program at the Frye expanded into areas like video art and performance that questioned and upended the definition of representational art. In 2008, the Museum’s mission was revised to embrace art in its myriad forms. The Frye’s contemporary art collection has grown significantly since that time, reflecting the diversity of the institution’s engagement with local, national, and international artists working today.

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Title Artist Medium Date
Afternoon Nap   Wyeth, Victoria Browning   Gelatin silver print  1996 
Clinkers   Berk, Leo Saul   Duratrans on sculptural lightbox  2012 
Egungun   Smith, Cauleen   Archival pigment print  2015 
Formation   Akashi, Kelly   Chromogenic crystallograph in aluminum artist's frame  2021 
Free me from this body, my voice can carry only so far. Free me from this body, as I lay on the grass it feels heavy and I can't move. Free me from this body, the color burns brown with dark limbs so tired and missing the weightless breadth of above   Hopinka, Sky   Inkjet print on Dibond  2020 
Hedonic Reversal #1   Valenzuela, Rodrigo   Archival pigment print  2015 
Hedonic Reversal #10   Valenzuela, Rodrigo   Archival pigment print  2015 
Hedonic Reversal #11   Valenzuela, Rodrigo   Archival pigment print  2015 
Hedonic Reversal #12   Valenzuela, Rodrigo   Archival pigment print  2015 
Hedonic Reversal #13   Valenzuela, Rodrigo   Archival pigment print  2015 
Hedonic Reversal #14   Valenzuela, Rodrigo   Archival pigment print  2015 
Hedonic Reversal #15   Valenzuela, Rodrigo   Archival pigment print  2015 
Hedonic Reversal #16   Valenzuela, Rodrigo   Archival pigment print  2015 
Hedonic Reversal #17   Valenzuela, Rodrigo   Archival pigment print  2015 
Hedonic Reversal #2   Valenzuela, Rodrigo   Archival pigment print  2015 
Hedonic Reversal #3   Valenzuela, Rodrigo   Archival pigment print  2015 
Hedonic Reversal #4   Valenzuela, Rodrigo   Archival pigment print  2015 
Hedonic Reversal #5   Valenzuela, Rodrigo   Archival pigment print  2015 
Hedonic Reversal #6   Valenzuela, Rodrigo   Archival pigment print  2015 
Hedonic Reversal #7   Valenzuela, Rodrigo   Archival pigment print  2015 
Hedonic Reversal #8   Valenzuela, Rodrigo   Archival pigment print  2015 
Hedonic Reversal #9   Valenzuela, Rodrigo   Archival pigment print  2015 
Landscape with Chad   Fenton, Anne   Color photograph  2012 
Lot 248 (still)   Siegel, Amie   Cibachrome print  2013 
Madrone + Mullan   Wechsler, Sadie   Archival inkjet print in madrone artist's frame  2021 


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