Bernard Frize

Bernard Frize considers himself a laborer that produces paintings, channeling the mantras of Minimalism and “self-revealing painterly materialism.” He often works with defined operations in his work, be it coordinating the strokes of his assistants or applying a very specific number of strokes to a canvas. These operations become the subject of his work, linking him to the process-based Color Field painters. Some of his most well-known works consider passing time, utilizing dried paint “skins” from the tops of paint cans or paint trays as collage elements or subjects on canvas. Frize considers the act of viewing a durational act, with an obvious link to the present that is also open to reconstitution in the future. He revels in the ways his art escapes language—it is a product of his immediate operations, yet continues to demystify art production by transforming with each new interpretation.  

Frize has exhibited at a number of institutions including the Stedelijk Museum, Ghent, Kunstverein St. Gallen Kunstmuseum, Switzerland, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, Grunwald Gallery of Art, Bloomington, Ohio, PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art, Russia, Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Weserburg Museum of Modern Art, Germany, Essl Museum, Vienna, Tate St. Ives, United Kingdom, Today Art Museum, Beijing, and Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany, among many others. He participated in the 2012 Sao Paulo Biennial, the 2005 and 1990 Venice Biennales, and the 1998 Sydney Biennial. The artist was awarded the Kathe-Kollwitz Prize in 2015 and the Fred Thieler Prize for Painting in 2011.