With Frey Norris Gallery, owners Raman Frey and Wendi Norris have created a comfortable and inviting space for contemporary art, with an eclectic calendar of programming. We heighten knowledge of our artists, projects and activities through relaxed conversation and a full schedule of events and openings that are free and open to the general public. Reading, research (in our growing archives) and informal discussions allow us to reach a wide range of people. We offer information and advice to help our clientele navigate the complex and now global contemporary art market.
Since 2002, our exhibitions and artists have been featured in The International Herald Tribune, through the A.P. Wire Service in nearly 80 countries, the San Francisco Chronicle, Art in America, ARTnews, Art Ltd., Art Week, 7x7 Magazine, The Economist, SF Weekly, KQED's Emmy Award winning arts program Spark, NBC, ABC and NPR, and on the internet at Artnet, SF Gate, SF Station, Laughing Squid and Artbusiness.com, among many others. Since 2002, we have placed works by our artists in a dozen major museums around the world, including the De Young Museum, The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, the Muros Art Museum in Cuernavaca, Mexico and SFMOMA, among others. Portions of our collection have been loaned to museums as well, most recently to “L’Arte delle Donne: dal Rinascimento al Surrealismo” at the Palazzo Reale in Milan.
In our ground floor gallery we feature contemporary art from the San Francisco Bay Area and Asia in a wide range of media. We regularly travel to Asia, Latin America and Europe to establish and maintain relationships with a number of international artists, collecting institutions and private collectors. We have hosted the American debuts of some of the most prominent artists in China, Korea, and Japan. These artists amuse, provoke, surprise and challenge, exploring fresh meaning and expressing innovative perspectives. Unlike many larger institutions, we remain nimble in our programming and attend to each artist's individual vision, whether they are widely celebrated or as yet relatively unknown.
The Frey Norris Gallery Annex, located above the main gallery on the third floor, focuses on classic Surrealism from its birth in 1924 to the 1980's, and specializes in women artists associated with this movement. Recent exhibitions include “Wolfgang Paalen: Implicit Spaces” in 2007 and “Leonora Carrington: The Talismanic Lens” in 2008. Featured artists include Victor Brauner, Leonora Carrington, Oscar Dominguez, Max Ernst, Leonor Fini, Andre Masson, Wolfgang Paalen, Stella Snead, Dorothea Tanning and Remedios Varo, among others. Our holdings have grown to become one of the most significant collections of Surrealism held by a private gallery in the western United States.
