Bigger, Better, More: The Art of Viola Frey

The first major exhibition of the artist's work since her death in 2004, Bigger, Better, More: The Art of Vila Frey featured Frey’s colossal clay figures, sculptures, ceramic plates, as well as a selection of her paintings and works on paper.

Frey emerged in the complex and often contradictory art world of the 1950’s, where painting, craft (specifically ceramics), and design often merged and diverged in dynamic ways. Coming from abstract expressionist traditions in the 1950s, she became involved in ceramics as her contemporaries Peter Voulkos and Robert Arneson were taking this medium to new sculptural and expressive horizons. Frey found her unique style and visual vocabulary in her lifelong fascination with mass-produced ceramic figurines, which she collected in flea markets, combining molded and actual versions of these elements in what are known as her “bricolage” sculptures.

The installation of Bigger, Better, More at MAD was coordinated by the Museum’s curator, Lowery Stokes Sims, and included works from the Museum's permanent collection, private collections, as well as two examples of Frey’s collaboration with ceramicist Betty Woodman. In addition, a selection of popular ceramics from Frey’s personal collection, which served as an inspiration for her “bricolage” sculptures, was lent by the Artists Legacy Foundation. An installation of works in the collection by California ceramicists, organized by Assistant Curator Elizabeth Edwards Kirrane, was also on view.

Bigger, Better, More: The Art of Viola Frey was co-organized by the Gardiner Museum in Toronto, Ontario and the Racine Art Museum in Racine, Wisconsin.