Untitled (plate)

Frey is one of the most influential clay sculptors in California. A native of Lodi, she attended the innovative California College of Arts and Crafts (now the California College of Arts) in the 1950s, where she first took ceramics courses. After earning her Master of Fine Arts at Tulane University, and studying ceramics and working in New York, she returned to the Bay area in 1960, teaching at CCAC for more than 30 years. Everything about Frey’s sculptures defies conventional scale. She would search for “flea market figures, ” which often found their way into her work. This large plate incorporates several doll and animal-like forms in high relief, a furniture finial, and possibly a bird whistle. A face and two hands gaze at us, mirror-like, as if trapped amongst the tchotchkes.