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.
Natalie Ball
Cotton cloth, twine, clay, leather, metal jingles, deer legs, and shoes
2018
Gretchen Frances Bennett
Color pencil on paper
2023
Dawn Cerny
Wood, drawings, textiles, clipboard, Apoxie Sculpt, polymer clay, paint, found ephemera from studio of Nancy Shaver
2021
Dawn Cerny
Wood, plaster tape, textiles, found ephemera from studio of Nancy Shaver, Apoxie Sculpt, paint
2021
Marita Dingus
Ceramic and mixed media
2023
ESTAR(SER), with special acknowledgment to the Committee on Vitreous Phenomena (Justin Ginsberg and Anna Riley)
Glass, with custom made iron and wood stand
n.d.
Jessica Jackson Hutchins
Glazed ceramic
2008
Jennie C. Jones
Earbuds and acrylic
2008
Jennie C. Jones
Audio tape from the 1992 Kenny-G recording “Breathless”, under plexiglass
2008
Eva Koťátková
Mixed media collage
2011
Eva Koťátková
Mixed media collage
2011
Eva Koťátková
Mixed media collage
2011