LET ’ER RIP

Works by Torea Frey

It’s OK To Be Different (i)
Collage, 18” x 18”

It’s OK To Be Different (ii)
Collage, 18” x 18”

It’s OK To Be Different (iii)
Collage, 18” x 18”

Inch by Inch
Collage composed of 144 one-inch by one-inch collages, 18” x 18”

Rainbow Connection
Collage, 18” x 18”

Artist statement

Some artists prefer to source specific materials; I find myself most enlivened by receiving new fodder and seeing what it sparks or unlocks within me -- so working with Neva’s paper was a tremendous gift. The first three pieces were created from the ripped remains of a single book. I gathered every scrap of it I could find, then sorted and rearranged the pieces around color, leaving evidence of the line-drawn graphics and hints of words and phrases, to create a joyous riot of color and texture that makes a virtue of doing your own thing. The other two pieces consider how the whole can be more than the sum of its parts; both Inch by Inch and Rainbow Connection feature a set of mini collages that are assembled into a larger piece. Each of these smaller abstractions is satisfying on its own, but when presented together show the power of unifying many disparate parts into a singular vision.

About the artist

Torea Frey is a mixed-media collage artist based in Clackamas, Oregon. She has been working with found papers, glue, and paint since the early 2000s, exploring the transformative potential of mundane materials. Her work has been shown in the US and internationally (at Denise Bibro Fine Art, Shift Gallery, and the Kolkata Academy of Fine Arts, for example), and it often grapples with issues of language, gender, identity, and memory. She is on the board of the Northwest Collage Society and is a member of the National Collage Society.

Visit her website or follow her on Instagram

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