siskiyou artists Finley
Fryer
Paintings & Sculpture by
Finley Fryer
Finley Fryer was born August 18, 1952 in Santa Monica, California. In the early 70’s he enrolled in Davis, studying with Roy Deforest, Manuel Neri, WiIliam T. Willey, Robert Arneson, Wayne Thiebaud and Robert Frank. It was the height of the bay area funk movement and Fryer absorbed it all. For him there was an instant attraction to this wide ranging group; the spirit of a new realism, the obsessive painterly detail, endowed with a humor that let the object meld seamlessly with the medium. Over the years Fryer would become fluent in many mediums: painting, sculpture, installations, coming up with his own unique Neo Funk voice that echoed these past influences yet was all his own. In the mid 70’s Fryer departed Davis, heading east, working as a carpenter in Boston and New York. After a stint in several upstate New York lumber mills, he returned to the west coast restoring church windows, as an itinerant stained glass repairman.The translucent nature of the stained glass was a catalyst. Fryer reassembled the fractured gems into windows and illuminated sculptures. As the sculptures got larger, the glass gave way to more plentiful, translucent plastic. Fryer soon settled in San Francisco. In 1979 he received his first major show at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, in New York. He worked as a carpenter and painter during the restoration boom of the 1980‘s, pioneering derelict warehouse space with other artists. In the 1990’s, he landed in Dunsmuir, California, a decaying railroad town set in the upper Sacramento River Canyon of the southern Siskiyous. There, he reclaimed a turn of the century brick commercial building, situated across from the town’s very active rail yard, and built a studio. In Dunsmuir, he met and married Jayne Bruck, an artist with a flare for recycling discards into art. Since 1998 , Fryer has become internationally known for the monumental creations he has installed at Burning Man: The Plastic Chapel, Stan, Coalita, and The Portal. His use of recycled materials has pushed these creations to the edge of the wild side, where visual surprise is the only absolute. Fryer currently splits his time between northern California and Oregon, maintaining studios in the mountain village of Dunsmuir and the coastal community of Gold Beach.
27 Horseman, oil on canvas, 84 x 64, 2014
Souls of Lost Painters, oil on canvas, 35 x 31, 2014
Wildlife Refuge, oil on canvas, 48 x 60, 2014
Woody’s Homestead, oil on canvas, 48 x 60, 2014
Rogue River, oil on canvas, 48 x 60, 2014
Bamiyan, oil on canvas, 32 x 56, 2013
God does not Yodel, oil on canvas, 48 x 60, 2014
Interviewing Your Brain, oil on canvas, 48 x 60, 2014
Four Seasons, oil on canvas, 48 x 48, 2012 Painting rotates on a central axis, each view represents a different season: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter
Four Seasons, views for each season
Port Orford Cedars, oil on canvas, 16 x 20, 2014
Road to Gold Beach, oil on board, 12 x 13, 2014
Road Runner, native stone & powder coat, 16 x 30 x 6, 2013
Bill, native stone, 28 x 24 x 10, 2014
Bob, native stone, 28 x 7 x 39, 2014
Dipper, native stone, 12 x 17 x 27, 2014
Womp, native stone, 15 x 6 x 25, 2014
Olie, native stone, 34 x 8 x 24, 2013
Jocelyn, native stone, 62 x 17 x 9, 2013
Lucy, native stone, 38 x 31 x 9, 2014
Barka, steel, 28 x 12 x 40, 2013
Burka Boarder, steel, 73 x 34 x 25, 2010
Stan, Burning Man, 1999
Stan, Victoria Manalo Draves Park, San Francisco 18’6” x 4’10” x 4’, 2007
Plastic Chapel, steel, recycled plastic, 20’ x 20’ x 24’, Reno Art Town, 2012
Stealth Angel, stainless steel, 102 x 56 x 38, 2012
FINLEY FRYER EDUCATION: University of California in Davis, CA, BFA, 1976 SOLO EXHIBITIONS: 2012 Finley Fryer, John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA 2011 New Works, Red Door Gallery, Mt. Shasta, CA 2007 Stan, Victoria Manalo Draves Park, San Francisco, CA 2005 Spotlight on North State Artistís, Turtle Bay Museum, Redding CA 2004 Coachella Valley Arts Festival, Stan installation, Coachella, CA 2003 Circle of Life, Portal installation, San Francisco, CA 2002 Portal, Entrance to Center Camp Cafe, Burning Man, Black Rock, Nevada 2001 Mystic Temple, Wholelife Exhibitions, Dallas, Texas 2001 Plastic Chapel, Seven Stages, Burning Man, Black rock, Nevada 2001 Coalita, Siskiyou County Fair, Yreka, CA 2001 Plastic Chapel, Art Town, Reno, Nevada 2000 Plastic Chapel, Cysco Systems Installation, Naples, Florida 2000 Coalita, Burning Man Festival, Black Rock, Nevada 1999 Recent paintings & Sculpture, Stonewall Gallery, Dunsmuir, CA 1999 Stan Goes to the Movies, California Theatre, Dunsmuir, CA 1998 Plastic Chapel, Burning Man Festival, Black Rock, Nevada 1997 Stonewall Gallery, Dunsmuir, CA 1994 Stonewall Gallery, Dunsmuir, CA 1984 Quay Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1984 Mo David, New York, NY 1976 Coffee Shop, Davis, CA 1978 Film: Road Closed, with Robert Frank, 6:32, super eight GROUP EXHIBITIONS: 2013 Art of Painting 21st. Century, Natsoulas Gallery, 2014, Davis CA 2013 Bark, Natsoulas Gallery, 2013, Davis CA 2013 Liberty Scroll, Liberty Arts Gallery, Yreka CA 2011 S.F. Fine Art Fair, San Francisco ,CA 2011 Female Creature, Liberty Arts, Yreka, CA 2009 Functional Art, Liberty Arts, Yreka, CA 2008 Inside Out, Painting : Sculpture, Finley Fryer & William Wareham, Liberty Arts, Yreka CA 2008 Bring Back the Fire, Portal installation, Santa Rosa, CA 2006 Reconsidered Materials, Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA 2004 We the Planet, Henry J Kaiser Center, Oakland, CA 2003 5201 Expressions of Tribute from Around the Globe, World Trade Center Memorial Competition Virtual Exhibit, New York, NY 2002 A Forest of Faces: Masquerade, Turtle Bay Museum, Redding, CA 2001 Life of the City, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY 2000 Grand Opening, Siskiyou Arts Council, Mount Shasta, CA 2000 Naturally Nude, Rare Images Gallery, Mount Shasta, CA 1999 Big Art, Siskiyou Arts Council, Mount Shasta, CA 1999 Black on Black, Stonewall Gallery, Dunsmuir, CA 1998 PeopleSoft Gala, Plastic Chapel Installation, San Francisco, CA 1996 ìPhosphorescent Days, Invisible Blue Nightsî, Stonewall Gallery, Dunsmuir, CA 1995 Portrait in Art, Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1995 Train of Thought, Stonewall Gallery, Dunsmuir, CA 1995 Gone Fishing, Stonewall Gallery, Dunsmuir, CA 1992 Rodeo, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA ( Catalogue) 1986 Techno Fear, Freight Door Gallery, University of Santa Clara, Santa Clara, CA 1985 Menagerie, San Francisco Airport, San Francisco, CA 1984 Discarded object: Refund Image, San Francisco Arts Commission, SF, CA 1983 Heller Gallery, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 1979 In a Pictorial Framework; Finley Fryer & David Saunders, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY (Catalogue) 1976 Art Department Gallery, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 1976 Crocker Kingsley Invitational, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
SELECTED RECENT BIBLIOGRAPHY: Morch, Al. ìSelected Art Masters of the Futureî, San Francisco Examiner, Monday, August 6, Section B, page 5. Bolender, Earl. ìHot Art in the Canyonî, Mount Shasta Herald, Wednesday, August 26, 1998 Section B, page 1. Olds, Vicki. Black Rock gazette, Burning Man Festival, 1998 Simunek, Cris. ìAs the World Burnsî, High Times, August 1999, No. 28 Hartman, Forrest. ìMusic, Dance, Theatreî, Reno Gazette, Monday, May 7, 2001 Lochrie, Cristy. ìStanding Tallî, Record Seachlight, Sunday, May 2, 2004. Section E, Page 1 SELECTED COLLECTIONS Di Rosa Preserve, Napa, CA Anne MacDonald, San Francisco, CA Peter Arth, Dunsmuir, CA Reagan & Terry Anderlini, Mount Shasta, CA Aimy & Bruce WIlbur, Dunsmuir, CA Preston & Henry Sauders, Redding, CA Mario Rubino, Dunsmuir CA Dwigh & Carrol Collier, Dunsmuir, CA Jill & Eric Webster, Albequrque, NM Iris Credo & Alek Balos, Mount Shasta, CA Sharon & Joe Kewecordes, Berkeley, CA Daniel Thurman, Heuvelton, New York WIlly & Kathy Dull, Petaluma, CA Jay Derha, New York, NY Irene Pijoan, Berkeley, CA Cris Brown, Berkeley, CA Joshua Bruck, UK Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY