A Conversation: Jeremy Frey and Jaime DeSimone

Karma is pleased to present a conversation between artist Jeremy Frey and Jaime DeSimone, chief curator, Farnsworth Art Museum, on the occasion of Frey’s exhibition at Karma,

Woven from natural materials such as sweetgrass and wood from brown ash trees, Frey’s vessels are characterized by subtle forms, delicately layered colors, and elaborate weaves. While drawing upon Indigenous basketry traditions local to the Wabanaki of the northeastern United States and on ancient Greek and Roman pottery, each vessel is also a staging ground for innovation.

A descendent of a long line of Indigenous basketmakers, Frey was introduced to the form by his mother and through an early apprenticeship at the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance, where he now serves as a board member. The survival of the brown or black ash, or “basket tree,” is currently threatened by the emerald ash borer, an invasive species, marking a new era for Frey and for a practice exemplifying Indigenous resilience and ingenuity.

Jeremy Frey is one of the foremost Passamaquoddy craftspeople of his generation. Frey, a descendant of a long line of Native weavers, learned traditional Wabanaki weaving techniques from his mother and by apprenticing at the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance. Working with customary materials such as brown ash and sweetgrass, Frey introduces new materials, unique forms, and fine weaves while maintaining a strong connection to the traditional practice.

Frey won Best of Show at the Santa Fe Indian Market in 2011, marking the first time a basketmaker achieved this honor in the market’s 90 year history. That same year, Frey won Best of Show and at the Heard Museum Indian Guild Fair and Market in Phoenix, Arizona, which he would repeat in 2015, making him the first artist ever to do so.

Frey’s work is held in the public collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; the Portland Museum of Art, ME; and Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, VA among others.

Jaime DeSimone is chief curator at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine. Prior to joining the Farnsworth in summer 2022, DeSimone served as the Robert and Elizabeth Nanovic Curator of Contemporary Art at the Portland Museum of Art (PMA) in Maine from 2018–2022, where she was the initiating curator of Passamaquoddy basket maker Jeremy Frey’s first solo museum exhibition, which will premiere in 2024. Other recent curated exhibitions at the PMA include Flying Woman: The Paintings of Katherine Bradford (2022), the North Atlantic Triennial (2022), Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe: Tabernacles for Trying Times (2020), and Ragnar Kjartansson: Scenes from Western Culture (2019–20). From 2021–2023, DeSimone was a scholar in the Fulbright Arctic Initiative III at the University of Tromsø, Norway. In 2019, she was the recipient of the Curatorial Research Fellowship from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. She served in other curatorial positions at MOCA Jacksonville (2014–2018) and the Addison Gallery of American Art (2005–2012). She holds degrees in art history, with a specialization in contemporary art, from American University (MA, 2005) and Bates College (BA, 2001).

Jeremy Frey, Out of the Woods

April 28-June 17

188 & 172 East 2nd Street, New York

Image: Jeremy Frey, Inner Turmoil, 2023

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Karma, 188 E 2nd Street, New York, United States