Skip to Content

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.


Feast

Dan Webb
Carved fir
2006

Fu Dogs

Jeffry Mitchell
Earthenware with luster glaze
2005

Sister Totem

Marita Dingus
Ceramic and mixed media
2023

Gingko

Gretchen Frances Bennett
Color pencil on paper
2023

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

Tracy + the Plastics

Wynne Greenwood
Video (color, sound)
2006/2014

Baby

Natalie Ball
Cotton cloth, twine, clay, leather, metal jingles, deer legs, and shoes
2018

Single Cabinet

Liz Magor
Polymerized gypsum, cans of beer
2001

Breathless #6

Jennie C. Jones
Audio tape from the 1992 Kenny-G recording “Breathless”, under plexiglass 
2008

untitled

Eva Koťátková
Mixed media collage
2011

untitled

Eva Koťátková
Mixed media collage
2011

untitled

Eva Koťátková
Mixed media collage
2011

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

Ground of Ground

Harry Gould Harvey IV
Black walnut from the Delano Sawmill, white oak from Prudence Island, MDF, colored pencil, charcoal, gouache, and pigments of goldenrod, Aronia Viking chokecherry, and rose petals
2022

Disaster Kitchen

Molly Zuckerman-Hartung
Oil, collage, plastic garbage bag, camouflage pants
2008-2011

For Fun

Khari Johnson-Ricks
Watercolor on paper with acetate
2021

Night Forest

Ann Leda Shapiro
Watercolor and watercolor pencil on archival paper
2022

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

Butterfly

Bony Ramirez
Acrylic, soft oil pastel, color pencil, wallpaper, metal chain, dried coconuts
2021

Trap

Duane Linklater
Powder-coated trap, mirror, gypsum board, plywood, steel wall studs
2016

Strange Business

Rose Nestler
Two-channel digital video (color, silent): 20 min.
2017-18

Dress for Success

Rose Nestler
Leather, thread, batting, grommets, hooks
2018

Egungun

Cauleen Smith
Archival pigment print
2015

Untitled (Badlands)

Juventino Aranda
Oil on wool Pendleton blanket
2018

Untitled

Ko Kirk Yamahira
Acrylic and graphite on partially unwoven canvas with wood
2019

To a Flame

Anthony White
PLA (plastic) on panel
2019