A Conversation Between Jeremy Frey and Thom Collins

Jeremy Frey is one of the foremost Passamaquoddy craftspeople of his generation. A descendant of a long line of Indigenous weavers, Frey learned traditional Wabanaki methods from his mother and by apprenticing at the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance. Woven from natural materials that the artist himself forages, such as sweetgrass and wood from black ash trees, Frey’s vessels are characterized by subtle forms, delicately layered colors, and elaborate weaves. Building on and experimenting with the material histories of Wabanaki basketry, his work is also in dialogue with contemporary sculpture’s emphasis on materiality, form, and variation within repetition. To create his basket relief prints, Frey has developed a novel form of flat weaving that can be run repeatedly through a printing press, preserving and sharing his techniques without impacting the stock of his rare materials. Frey lives in Maine.

Thom Collins is an art historian, educator, administrator, author, and Neubauer Family Executive Director and President of the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia. Collins has more than 30 years of experience at some of America’s top arts institutions, including the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM); the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York; the Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, Maryland; the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; the Henry Art Gallery. Seattle; and Museum of Modern Art, New York. Collins earned his MA in art history from Northwestern University and his BA with honors in art history and the history of religion from Swarthmore College. He is a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors, the Association of Art Museum Curators, and the College Art Association.

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