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Recent Acquisitions


The Frye Art Museum continues to strategically build its collection through purchases and gifts, both deepening existing areas of strength and diversifying holdings to reflect the Museum’s expansive curatorial program and Seattle’s globalized present.

Acquisitions of the last five years demonstrate the Museum’s commitment to growing and contextualizing its distinctive historical collections of late nineteenth- and twentieth-century European and American art while broadening its holdings of contemporary works to embrace previously underrepresented identities, perspectives, and forms of expression. To some extent, acquisitions mirror the Museum’s exhibition history, creating a material record of the institution’s engagement with local, national, and international artists and commemorating the special audience connection formed through temporary presentations. Contemporary artworks chosen for the collection often respond to or complicate the narratives around mediums and genres traditionally associated with the Frye, like painting, landscape, and portraiture.


The Edith Wharton you can afford

Dawn Cerny
Wood, plaster tape, textiles, found ephemera from studio of Nancy Shaver, Apoxie Sculpt, paint
2021

Covid March (after unemployment, the park, then home)

Dawn Cerny
Wood, drawings, textiles, clipboard, Apoxie Sculpt, polymer clay, paint, found ephemera from studio of Nancy Shaver
2021

Black Face with Wide Chest

Tschabalala Self
Colored pencil, acrylic paint, gouache, charcoal, graphite on archival inkjet print
2021

Black Face Red Bone with Black Bob

Tschabalala Self
Colored pencil, acrylic paint, gouache, charcoal, graphite on archival inkjet print
2021

For Fun

Khari Johnson-Ricks
Watercolor on paper with acetate
2021

Mangahufo' I famaguon

Gisela McDaniel
Oil on panel, found objects, sound
2021

Madrone + Mullan

Sadie Wechsler
Archival inkjet print in madrone artist's frame
2021

Formation

Kelly Akashi
Chromogenic crystallograph in aluminum artist's frame
2021