Viola Frey: Foundations at Bedford Gallery, in the Press
An exhibition spanning 1965 to 1987 traces Viola Frey's progression from painting and drawing into the monumental ceramic sculpture that defined her practice.
Viola Frey: Foundations · Bedford Gallery, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek · 2026
Bedford Gallery presents Viola Frey: Foundations, an exhibition spanning 1965 to 1987, on view through April 5, 2026. The show traces the formative period of Frey's career, following her progression from two-dimensional painting and drawing into the monumental ceramic sculpture that would define her practice for the next four decades.
A&O has had the pleasure of working with Bedford Gallery on communications and press outreach for this exhibition. For a community gallery presenting work of this historical weight, the response from regional and national arts press has reflected the significance of the show and the enduring relevance of Frey's contribution to contemporary art.
Press Recognition for Viola Frey: Foundations
We are grateful for the thoughtful coverage honoring the legacy of a monumental California artist. Sarah Hotchkiss included Foundations in her KQED guide to the Bay Area's biggest month in art. Barbara Morris wrote a detailed review for Square Cylinder, tracing Frey's path from Lodi to the Bay Area ceramic revolution.
Chadd Scott covered the exhibition in Forbes, noting the rare opportunity to see the process behind an influential artist's early practice. Deborah Kirk spotlighted the show in Diablo Magazine, highlighting Frey's monumental ceramic figures and curator Emilee Enders's focus on the first two decades of the artist's career.
"Viola Frey: Foundations offers a comprehensive and rare look at the process and exploration of an influential artist's early practice, as well as an expanded perspective on her enduring legacy in the Bay Area and beyond."
See Viola Frey: Foundations at Bedford Gallery Through April 5th
Curator Emilee Enders designed the exhibition in a spiral layout, inspired by recurring imagery in Frey's body of work, a natural fit for Bedford's circular gallery. Near the entrance are Alameda Flea Market I and III (1970), lively monochromatic acrylic works on paper where Frey used sgraffito, scratching images into the paint to reveal the surface beneath. The flea market at Alameda was a regular excursion for Frey, who scoured the booths for the kitschy figurines that found their way into her sculptural compositions for decades.
Untitled (Seated Woman in White Chair) (1965), the show's earliest sculptural work, presents a contorted brown figure embedded in a lumpy white chair. Self-Portrait with Figurines (1976) stands later in the timeline and represents the point where Frey's scale and her engagement with collected objects converged into a single, fully realized form.
How Viola Frey Built Ten-Foot Ceramic Sculptures
The ceramic figures that followed these early works are monumental in a way the medium had rarely accommodated. Sculptures standing ten feet tall or more and weighing thousands of pounds were built in sections, allowed to dry, sawed apart, individually glazed and fired, painted by hand, and reassembled. Frey maintained this process for decades, working six days a week in her Oakland studio.
Her figures addressed gender, cultural iconography, and the politics of domestic objects with a directness that resisted sentimentality. Alongside Robert Arneson and Peter Voulkos, Frey reshaped what ceramics could hold as a fine art medium. The three artists, all working in the Bay Area, moved ceramics from a craft tradition into the same critical conversation as painting and sculpture.
Where to Find Viola Frey's Work in Public Collections
Her work is held in more than seventy public collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, LACMA, and SFMOMA. She had a solo exhibition at the Whitney in 1984, received two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from CCA. In 2000, she co-founded the Artists' Legacy Foundation with Squeak Carnwath and Gary Knecht. The first monograph on her career, Viola Frey: Artist's Mind/Studio/World, was published in 2024.
Visiting Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek
Bedford Gallery is located in the Lesher Center for the Arts at 1601 Civic Drive in Walnut Creek, California. With 3,500 square feet of exhibition space, the gallery is the largest community-based visual arts facility between the Bay Area and Sacramento. Foundations is on view Wednesday through Saturday, 12pm to 5pm, through April 5, 2026.