PMA Magazine

“His legacy is a new energy — a boldly contemporary take on an ancient woodland craft. ‘I’ve worked for more than 20 years reinventing this traditional art form,’ Frey says.”

Frey wants to have it all: to be a contemporary traditionalist, an artist-artisan, an internationalist exponent of his own tribe. It hasn’t been easy. More than two decades of unremitting effort, willpower and imagination have been necessary to get him this far.

While at the museum, you can see paintings by Winslow Homer and N.C. Wyeth, but don’t miss the work of artists who have broadened and deepened the legacy of Maine art in recent decades, including paintings by Reggie Burrows Hodges and Daniel Minter, and sculpture by Lauren Fensterstock.

“Passamaquoddy artist Jeremy Frey has become one of the most awarded and collected Indigenous basket weavers in the country for his contemporary mastery of the Wabanaki weaving tradition.”

“Wabanaki people originally wove baskets for functional purposes, but, over time, basketmaking has evolved into more of an art form. Today, some have taken the art of basketmaking to new levels--such as the renowned Passamaquoddy artist Jeremy Frey.”

Frey, a celebrated seventh-generation Indigenous basketmaker, uses the traditional designs of the Wabanaki tribal confederation of New England and the Canadian Maritimes as takeoff points for bold departures.

Frey’s baskets, frankly, astonish.

"...at last, there is a book available for the masses that celebrates [Frey's] impressive work."

“The exhibition is a dazzling showcase of his ability to take unconventional materials…and create objects of delicate, rhythmic delight.”

The baskets of Jeremy Frey from the Passamaquoddy tribe in Maine have caught the attention of the art world.