Viola Frey

1933Born Lodi, California

2004Died Oakland, California

EDUCATION

1952-1953Stockton Delta College, Stockton, California

1953-1956BFA California College of the Arts, Oakland, California

1956-1958Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana

PRIMARY WORK EXPERIENCE

1957-1958Worked with Katherine Choy at the Clay Art Center, Port Chester, New York

1970-1999Professor of Art, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California

BIOGRAPHY

 Viola Frey is known for her monumental, brightly colored, figural sculptures. She became a major player in California Funk, a movement among artists working with clay who challenged the confines of functional work.

In the 1970s she began to build her larger than life, multi-piece, figural sculptures. She would cut into these pieces in order to move and fire them. Her figures are textured and glazed with bright colors.

Frey also created large-scale ceramic plates and chargers. She was equally skilled as both a draftsman and painter. In addition, she was an avid collector of kitsch ceramics and often made molds from them, using the cast pieces in some of her work. 

Frey joined the faculty of California College of the Arts in 1960. She retired in 1999 as chair of the Ceramics program.

An interview with Viola Frey conducted Feb. 27, May 15 and June 19, 1995 by Paul Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art, Women in the Arts in Southern California Oral History Project is available at:
http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-viola-frey-12554.

Public Collections

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, Hawaii

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, California

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York

Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, California

Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina

Musee National de Ceramique de Sevres, Paris, France

Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California

Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Arts of the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shigaraki, Japan

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Kansas

Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida

Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California

Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, California

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College, Claremont, California

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California

San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, Washington D.C.

Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York

Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut

Bibliography

Chadwick, Whitney. Viola Frey. Fresno, CA: Fresno Art Museum, 1991.

Clowes, Jody. “Bigger, More: The Art of Viola Frey,” American Craft, December/January 2010.

Frey, Viola and Donald Kuspit. Viola Frey: Plates 1968-1984. New York, NY: Nancy Hoffman Gallery, 1994.

__________. Viola Frey. San Francisco, CA: Rena Branstein Gallery, 1994.

Gluck, Grace. “Art Review: Viola Frey—A Lasting Legacy,” New York Times, October 7, 2005.

Hirsch, Faye. “Viola Frey,” Art in America, April 2010.

Israel, Julia. Review, “Bigger, Better, More: The Art of Viola Frey,” Out New York: Kids, February 2010.

Johnson, Ken. “Colossi, Both Kitschy and Compelling,” New York Times, February 16, 2010.

Kohlhaas, Alidë. “Viola Frey Powerful Images,” Lancette Arts Journal, September 2099.

Krupit, Donald. Viola Frey: Plates 1968-1994. New York, NY: Nancy Hoffman Gallery, 1995.

Rice, Robin. “Dirt on Delight,” American Craft, October/November 2009.

Taragin, Davira, Patterson Sims and Susan Jefferies. Bigger, Better, More: The Art of Viola Frey. Manchester, VT: Hudson Hills, 2009.

Trapp, Kenneth R. Viola Frey: A Lasting Legacy. New York, NY: Nancy Hoffman Gallery, 2005.

Southern Highland Craft Guild