We are thrilled to announce Maine-based artist Jeremy Frey as the recipient of the 2024 Rappaport Prize! Frey is the first Indigenous artist to receive this prestigious prize in its 25-year history.

Established in 2000, the Rappaport Prize is an annual art award presented to a contemporary artist with strong connections to New England by deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum through the support of the Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport Foundation.

Jeremy Frey (b. 1978, Passamaquoddy Indian Township Reservation, Maine) is one of the foremost Passamaquoddy craftspeople of his generation. A descendant of a long line of Indigenous weavers, Frey learned traditional Wabanaki methods from his mother and by apprenticing at the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance. Woven from natural materials that the artist himself forages, such as sweetgrass and wood from brown ash trees, Frey’s vessels are characterized by subtle forms, delicately layered colors, and elaborate weaves.

Frey won Best of Show at the Santa Fe Indian Market in 2011, marking the first time a basketmaker achieved this honor in the market’s 90 year history. That same year, Frey won Best of Show and at the Heard Museum Indian Guild Fair and Market in Phoenix, Arizona, which he would repeat in 2015, making him the first artist ever to do so.

Frey’s work is held in the public collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; the Abbe Museum, Bar Harbor, Maine; and the Portland Museum of Art, Maine, among others. Jeremy Frey: Woven, a major traveling retrospective, is on view at the Portland Museum of Art until September 15, 2024 and will travel to the Art Institute of Chicago and Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT.

Attend Jeremy Frey’s Rappaport Prize Artist Lecture on Wednesday, October 23 at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.