Jeremy Frey Draws on Indigenous Traditions to Weave Wondrous Baskets

Born on the Passamaquoddy Indian Township Reservation in northeast Maine, artist Jeremy Frey has developed a basketry practice that stems from many generations of stewards, harvesters, and weavers. Though carrying on traditional Wabanaki practices and materials, Frey has always sought to innovate the form.

His intricate baskets, which take on unique and sumptuous forms resembling vases, urns, or even sea urchins, have been awarded top prizes at craft fairs across the U.S., and have been acquired by major collectors and institutions. Now, Frey is gearing up for his first solo gallery exhibition, “Out of the Woods,” which opened at New York’s Karma on April 28th and runs through June 17th. Frey is the first U.S. Indigenous artist the gallery has represented.

Though surrounded by basketry his entire life, Frey only took up the practice in his early twenties, learning weaving techniques from his mother and harvesting techniques from his uncle. “Basketry is in our DNA; we can trace the practice back seven generations, but we know it goes back even further,” Frey said, of his family’s legacy. Though members of Frey’s family have made all kinds of baskets, the artist found his calling with “fancy baskets.” These baskets, that are decorative as opposed to functional, were adapted by tribes in northern Maine to increase sales to colonial settlers and tourists in the late 1800s.

Frey’s earliest sales were made on pop-up tables in front of businesses in the reservation or at local fairs. Even then, he was determined to create baskets that no one had seen before by incorporating complex patterns and vibrant colors into bespoke shapes. Two decades later, Frey’s baskets have been on view at prestigious museums across the U.S., including the deCordova Museum’s “New England Triennial” and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2022 alone. In 2024, he will have his first solo exhibition at the Portland Museum of Art.

“While I am playing with this tradition, it’s important that my work always resembles a basket,” Frey said. Frey is as committed to his form as he is to his process: Gathering and preparing materials is a laborious yet essential part of his work. The primary material in Wabanaki basket-making is the ash tree, which Frey carefully selects, chops, splits, and pounds by hand with tools he constructs himself. The artist also incorporates foraged materials such as sweetgrass, porcupine quills, and other tree barks. “Processing my own materials allows me to get closer to the material; a tree might speak to me while I’m foraging and I’ll look at its shape, health, and grain to determine if it will work for my basket,” he said.