▷ Viola Frey | Buy Original Art Online

United States • 1933 - 2004

Biography

Viola Frey (1933–2004) was a pioneering American artist, known for her monumental ceramic sculptures, paintings, and drawings. Born in Lodi, California, she grew up in a winemaking family, an experience that influenced her aesthetic and artistic approach.

She earned her BFA in 1956 from the California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts), where she studied painting with Richard Diebenkorn and ceramics with Vernon "Corky" Coykendall and Charles Fiske. She later pursued graduate studies at Tulane University, where she studied with Mark Rothko and George Rickey.

Frey joined the faculty of the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1965 and continued teaching there until 1999, influencing several generations of artists. In 2000, she received an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the institution.

Her work is characterized by large ceramic sculptures, often depicting human figures dressed in stylized costumes or robes, exploring themes of power, gender, and popular culture. She also created works on paper, paintings, and drawings, incorporating elements from her personal collection of figurines found in thrift stores, which she used in her sculptures and paintings.

Frey received numerous accolades, including two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Award of Honor in Sculpture from the San Francisco Arts Commission. Her work is held in over 70 public collections, including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

She passed away in 2004 in Oakland, California. In 2000, she co-founded the Artists' Legacy Foundation with Squeak Carnwath and Gary Knecht, a nonprofit organization dedicated to managing artists' estates and posthumous philanthropy. At the time of her death, she became the first Legacy Artist of the Foundation.

Nationality

American artists