November 1 – December 8, 2024
Panel Discussion on collecting with Frazier King & Crista Dix – Saturday November 16, 2.30 – 4pm
The Collector’s Eye book signing to follow the panel discussion on Saturday November 16. Link here to reserve a copy of the book
Reception for the Collector – Saturday November 16th, 6 to 8pm
The Griffin Museum is excited to showcase the collection of artist and collector, Frazier King. Known to emerging, mid career and established artists of the medium, Frazier has spent a lifetime supporting, collecting and collaborating with photographers celebrating the craft and artistry of photography.
The collection of Frazier King is a reflection of his interactions with his fellow contemporary photographers over the last 20 years, King has collected black and white as well as color prints focusing on the constructed photograph. This collection provides a unique record of the various ways of constructing an image, and the evolution of this genre over the last decades. The collection was originally presented by FotoFest in 2012 in an exhibition entitled The Collector’s Eye II. Subsequently, King produced a book in conjunction with FotoFest entitled The Collector’s Eye—A Photographer’s View of His Contemporaries.
King explains that he uses an intuitive process in developing both his collection and his photographic practice. The collection springs from his personal exchanges with various photographers in the context of FotoFest Meeting Place, as well as in his role as an active member of the board of the Houston Center for Photography and his own photographic practice. King, who worked as an energy lawyer in Houston, created several projects using constructed images and his photography has been shown worldwide and is included in a number of important museum collections.
The collection is grouped according to the methods of construction and, as a collector, gives his interpretation of each one of them. His collection includes prints by Roberto Fernández Ibáñez, Jerry Uelsmann, Diane Ducruet and others, who constructed their photographs in the printing process. The largest portion of the constructed photographs in King’s collection consists of prints resulting from a construction in front of the camera – Elaine Duigenan, Pavel Baňka, John Chervinsky, and Susan Dunkerley Maguire are just a few, who bring inanimate objects to life, play with scale, use scanners rather than a camera and use unusual materials to physically construct a representation of a particular object or series of objects.
About Frazier King
Frazier King is a photographer, collector and curator, living and working in Houston, TX. His photography work focuses on constructed still life and some bodies are produced using film and gelatin silver prints while others are produced using digital capture and archival pigment prints. “The Seven Deadly Sins” series is his most recent work, produced in 2022. Over the last 25 years he has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, France, and Belgium. His work is included in the collections of many individuals and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Harry Ransom Center, Austin, TX; George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, France; and Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He has been a collector since the 1990s. His collection was shown by FotoFest in 2012 in “The Collector’s Eye II” exhibition. Subsequently, he produced in conjunction with FotoFest and Schilt Publishing a book entitled “The Collector’s Eye—A Photographer’s View of His Contemporaries,” showing his collection and featuring essays by Wendy Watriss, co-founder of FotoFest, Madeline Yale Preston, former Executive Director of the Houston Center of Photography and now independent curator, and himself, addressing the nature of the collection and its acquisition. The book is entitled “The Collector’s Eye—A Photographer’s View of His Contemporaries.” During his 15 years serving as a member of the board of directors of HCP, he curated or co-curated exhibitions and participated as a reviewer in photography portfolio review events around the world.
