The first major retrospective of the artist’s work, Jeremy Frey: Woven presents a comprehensive survey of Frey’s prolific career spanning more than two decades. A seventh-generation Passamaquoddy basket maker and one of the most celebrated Indigenous weavers in the country, Frey learned traditional Wabanaki weaving techniques from his mother and through apprenticeships at the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance. While Frey builds on these cultural foundations in his work, he also pushes the creative limits of his medium, producing conceptually ambitious and meticulously crafted baskets that reflect not only his technical skill as a weaver but also his profound ecological knowledge of and connection to the Passamaquoddy ancestral territory of the Northeastern Woodlands. His work relies heavily on natural resources from the region—notably black ash—many of which have come under threat due to climate change and invasive species. Frey’s work takes on new stakes against these looming environmental crises, celebrating an endangered art form and preserving its legacy for future generations.

Featuring over fifty baskets made of raw materials such as sweetgrass, cedar, spruce root, and porcupine quills, Woven also offers visitors an opportunity to reflect on the cultural agency and resilience embedded in Frey’s practice. Bringing his engagement with new materials and forms to bear on his work across video, installation, and print, Frey seeks to honor his ancestors, relatives, and future generations, weaving together past and present to uplift viewers through the power and beauty of his ever-evolving vision.

Jeremy Frey: Woven is organized by the Portland Museum of Art, Maine. The exhibition was curated by Ramey Mize, Associate Curator of American Art, Portland Museum of Art, Maine, and Jamie DeSimone, Chief Curator at the Farnsworth Art Museum. Penobscot basket maker and founding director of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance Theresa Secord served as a cultural consultant for the exhibition. The presentation at the Bruce Museum is organized by Margarita Karasoulas, Curator of Art.

Jeremy Frey (Passamaquoddy, b. 1978)
Blue Point Urchin, 2016
Ash, sweetgrass, and dye, 5 x 9 x 9 in.
Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Ari and Lea Plosker
© Jeremy Frey. Image courtesy Eric Stoner

Jeremy Frey (Passamaquoddy, b. 1978)
Watchful Spirit, 2022
Ash, porcupine quills, sweetgrass, and dye, 27 3/8 x 22 1/4 x 22 1/4 in.
Denver Art Museum: Purchased with the Nancy Blomberg Acquisitions Fund
for Native American Art, 2022.51A-B
© Jeremy Frey. Image courtesy Denver Art Museum

Jeremy Frey (Passamaquoddy, b. 1978)
Cathedral, 2018
Ash, sweetgrass, and dye, 21 1/4 x 10 x 10 in.
Portland Museum of Art, Maine. Museum purchase with support from the
Peggy and Harold Osher Acquisitions Fund,
Bernstein Acquisition Fund, and Barbara Goodbody, 2018.15a,b
© Jeremy Frey. Image courtesy Luc Demers

Jeremy Frey (Passamaquoddy, b. 1978)
Shooting Star, 2008
Ash, sweetgrass, and dye, 6 x 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 in.
Portland Museum of Art, Maine. Museum purchase with support from the
Peggy and Harold Osher Acquisition Fund, 2022.30a,b
© Jeremy Frey. Image courtesy Luc Demers