Frye Art Museum - 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.

Landscape with Chad

Anne Fenton
Color photograph
2012

Table with popular merchandise selected by the artist from the Frye Store, from the series Liu Ding's Store

Liu Ding
Wood, aluminum, paint, Frye Store merchandise
2012

Table with children's merchandise selected by the artist from the Frye Store, from the series Liu Ding's Store

Liu Ding
Wood, aluminum, paint, Frye Store merchandise
2012

Table with Munich Secession–themed merchandise selected by the artist from the Frye Store, from the series Liu Ding's Store

Liu Ding
Wood, aluminum, paint, Frye Store merchandise
2012

Landscape #7

Matt Browning
Tree sap on handmade wood panel
2012

Untitled

Mark Calderon
Book spine repair tape
2012

Not Waving, but Drowning

Jeffry Mitchell
Glazed earthenware on artist-made wood pedestal
2012

Ode to Octavia Part 12: (Sparkles)...Recollections of the Wraith

The Black Constellation
Digital video (color, sound); 4:49 min.
2012

Ode to Octavia: Cranium Adornment #5

The Black Constellation
Composited bone, enamel, found goggles
2012

Ode to Octavia: Neo-Ancient Taliswoman

The Black Constellation
Incantation, repurposed bronze, brass, silver, stainless steel, rosewood, beechnut, abalone shell, ibex and dik-dik horn, precious and semiprecious stones, 1996 GMC truck key
2012