Jeremy Frey, Eastman Johnson

The Modern Art Notes Podcast

Episode No. 663 features artist Jeremy Frey and curator Sarah Humphreville.

The Portland Museum of Art is presenting "Jeremy Frey: Woven," a twenty-year survey of Frey's basketry and printmaking. The exhibition features more than fifty baskets made from natural materials such as black ash and sweetgrass, as well as prints and video. The exhibition is in Maine through September 15, when it will travel to the Art Institute of Chicago. It was curated by Ramey Mize and Jaime DeSimone. The excellent catalogue was published by Rizzoli Electa in association with the PMA. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $35-46.

In 2011, Frey became the first basket-maker to win Best of Show at the Santa Fe Indian Market, in 2011, a feat he repeated in 2014. His work has been included in exhibitions at institutions such as The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, and the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, Mass.

Frey, a seventh-generation Passamaquoddy basket-maker, makes his baskets from ash trees, which are threatened by an invasive species called the emerald ash borer. The exhibition also presents this threat to Wabanaki cultural traditions and northeastern forests.

Humphreville is the curator of "Eastman Johnson and Maine," at the Colby Museum of Art at Colby College. The show celebrates the bicentennial of Johnson's birth with a presentation of works Johnson made in Maine, his home state. It is accompanied by a gallery of works made by Johnson's peers. "Johnson and Maine" is on view through December 8.

Patricia Hills, the director of the Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné Project, served as a scholarly advisor to the project. Because the project's website is such a valuable resource, here are links to the works we discussed on the program. Non-Johnson works are included below.

• Woodcutter, ~1868;
• Measurement and Contemplation in the Camp, ~1861-65;
• On Their Way to the Camp, 1873;
• The Party in the Maple Sugar Camp, ~1861-65;
• The Truants, ~1861-65;
• Barn Swallows, 1878;
• Barn Interior at Corn Husking Time, 1860;
• Shelling Corn, 1864; and
• Winnowing Grain, ~1860-66.

Instagram: Jeremy Frey, Sarah Humphreville, Tyler Green.