"Art for all.” That's the message of the Portland Museum of Art with the aim of making art accessible and open to everyone.

“The exhibit features painting, photography, and sculpture from 14 artists with deep connections to Maine.”

Photograph by iBec Creative

“None have shown their work at the PMA before.”

Photography by iBec Creative

“Sayantan Mukhopadhyay, who moved to Maine last year to take a job at the Portland Museum of Art, got to know the state through the process of curating 'As We Are,' on view all winter.”

Photograph by iBec Creative

And, while there is something to be said for routine, I am personally looking forward to the expansion into the neighboring property at 142 Free St.

Art gives us the chance to see the world through the eyes of someone else, providing a glimpse into their lives, history and experiences, which can be profoundly different than our own. 

"Artist takes ancient tradition of basket weaving in new directions"—PBS News

"Reflective storefront windows, theater marquees and subway cars populate the artwork of American artist Richard Estes. Throughout his career, the Illinois native has been drawn to the iconography of large cities, depicting urban settings in photorealist paintings."—Mountain Lake PBS

"Timber and fine art may seem like an odd combination, but the Portland Museum of Art is promoting itself as the perfect host for a conference this fall on an innovative type of forest product."—MaineBiz

"Beyond rich allusions to the past, Jeremy Frey and his generation of basket-makers are also creating objects that will leave your eyes spinning."—The Art Fuse

"Museum supporters mingled in the sculpture garden, enjoying refreshments and each other."—The Portland Press Herald

"The 20th-century caricature artist, whose work appeared in The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, spent the end of her life in southern Maine."—The Portland Press Herald

Image credit: Peggy Bacon (United States, 1895 - 1987), Peggy Bacon from Off with their Heads!, 1934, clothbound hardcover book with 39 offset lithograph illustrations on paper, 12 1/2 x 9 1/2 x 1/2 inches. Museum purchase with support from the Barbara Cash Collection, 2023.31. Image courtesy Petegorsky/Gipe Photo

The Portland Museum of Art is thrilled to announce the opening of As We Are, an exhibition showcasing the work of 14 emerging artists with deep connections to Maine.

"Having already received many of the highest honors reserved for Native American artists including Best of Show at both the Heard Fair and Santa Fe Indian Market, Frey was adamant that the exhibition position his work as contemporary art. “I didn’t want to do a basket show,” he stated at the show’s opening. As he told Atlas Obscura, “I’ve spent my whole career trying to redefine what ash can be.” [1] Woven, therefore, represents basket weaving in an expanded sense. Rather than a retrospective display of finished works, it frames Frey’s longstanding weaving practice as a jumping-off point for explorations of new techniques and media."

Now, the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum has awarded Frey, an enrolled member of the Passamaquoddy tribe, the 25th annual Rappaport Prize, a $50,000 cash award to honor a contemporary artist working in New England.

“It’s overwhelming,” said Frey, 45, reached by phone in rural Maine. “I still haven’t processed it fully.”

Taking up an ancient practice, Jeremy Frey carries it into the here and now.

“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.

The artist has donated over 150 works from his foundation’s collection to the Portland Museum of Art, among other institutions in the state.

“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.