FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18, 2015
Media Contacts:
Amanda Hunter, 202.387.2151 x243
ahunter@phillipscollection.org
Elizabeth Lubben, 202.387.2151 x235
elubben@phillipscollection.org
Online Press Room
www.phillipscollection.org/press
THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION ANNOUNCES ITS SPRING 2016 INTERSECTIONS PROJECT
Helen Frederick’s Acts of Silence addresses the endangerment and degradation of the environment.
WASHINGTON—In spring 2016, The Phillips Collection will present the work of distinguished DC artist
Helen Frederick. Addressing the endangerment and degradation of the environment, Frederick’s Acts of
Silence aligns with the philosophical approach to nature found in the work of American artist Morris
Graves (1910–2001), who developed a spiritual bond with the landscape and culture of the Pacific
Northwest. Acts of Silence is part of the Phillips’s ongoing Intersections series that highlights
contemporary art and artists in conversation with the museum’s permanent collection, history, and
architecture.
Helen Frederick, Phenomenal Space, 2015. Pulp paintings, 42 x 22 in. each. Image courtesy of the artist.
Drawing equally from the phenomenal world and spaces of consciousness, the natural forms and social
issues, Frederick’s work is at once poetic and poignantly reflective. In Acts of Silence, her pulp prints and
paintings—created by delicate layering of colorful, handmade paper—are surrounded by projected
images of the forest, light-based sculptures, and sound pieces creating an immersive, multisensory, and
interactive space. Juxtaposed with some of the Phillips’s most celebrated Graves works, they reinforce
an introspective experience of art while bringing awareness of human responsibility toward the natural
environment. Frederick’s painitngs give new meaning to Graves’s process of finding and creating images
of creatures in the night, revealing the subconcious and serving as a means of psychological exploration.
A multilayered, multimedia installation, Acts of Silence reveals that there are ominous signs of death and
destruction growing louder everywhere. Frederick’s artwork unearths various types of disappearances
and deaths in nature by penetrating what is silently being lost.
—more—
Page 2—Helen Frederick: Acts of Silence
Helen Frederick is Director of Printmaking at George Mason University and the founder of Pyramid
Atlantic, a contemporary arts center in Silver Spring, Maryland, dedicated to the creation and
appreciation of hand papermaking, printmaking, digital arts, and the art of the book. Her work has been
exhibited at numerous institutions including the Kreeger Museum and Women’s War Memoral
Museum, Washington, DC, and Tokushima Museum of Modern Art, Japan, and is in more than 100
private collections.
Acts of Silence is on view February 4–May 1, 2016.
INTERSECTIONS AT THE PHILLIPS
Inaugurated in 2009 and led by Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Vesela Sretenović, the
Phillips’s Intersections series has invited more than 21 artists from the US and abroad to engage with
the museum’s collection and architecture. The artists have created diverse projects—both aesthetically
and conceptually—and employed various media, from wall-drawing, rubber-painting, and digital
photography to video projection and yarn installation.
Intersections is presented by
Additional support is provided by Phillips Collectors Forum members.
ABOUT THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION
The Phillips Collection, America’s first museum of Modern art, is one of the world’s most distinguished
collections of Impressionist and Modern American and European art. Stressing the continuity between
art of the past and present, it offers a strikingly original and experimental approach to Modern art by
combining works of different nationalities and periods in displays that change frequently. The setting is
similarly unconventional, featuring small rooms, a domestic scale, and a personal atmosphere. Artists
represented in the collection include Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Degas, Henri
Matisse, Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Claude Monet, Honoré Daumier,
Georgia O’Keeffe, Arthur Dove, Mark Rothko, Milton Avery, Jacob Lawrence, and Richard Diebenkorn,
among others. The permanent collection has grown to include more than 1,000 photographs, many by
American photographers Berenice Abbott, Esther Bubley, and Bruce Davis, and works by contemporary
artists such as Anslem Kiefer, Wolfgang Laib, Whitfield Lovell, and Leo Villareal. The Phillips Collection
regularly organizes acclaimed special exhibitions, many of which travel internationally. The Intersections
series features projects by contemporary artists responding to art and spaces in the museum. The
Phillips also produces award-winning education programs for K–12 teachers and students, as well as for
adults. The University of Maryland Center for Art and Knowledge at The Phillips Collection is the
museum’s nexus for academic work, scholarly exchange, and interdisciplinary collaborations. Since
1941, the museum has hosted Sunday Concerts in its wood-paneled Music Room. The Phillips Collection
is a private, non-government museum, supported primarily by donations.
ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
The University of Maryland is the state's flagship university and one of the nation's preeminent public
research universities. A global leader in research, entrepreneurship and innovation, the university is
home to more than 37,000 students, 9,000 faculty and staff, and 250 academic programs. Its faculty
includes three Nobel laureates, three Pulitzer Prize winners, 47 members of the national academies and
scores of Fulbright scholars. For more information about the University of Maryland, visit
www.umd.edu.
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