All my work is based in the representational, in reality, real things, objects, people you can identify, but I definitely need and seek to push beyond the real to abstract things and subjects to varying degrees. It is what motivates me to keep working! I am past a stage of being interested in pure Representationalism; when I was younger, the Photorealist and Precisionist Movements were inspirational and motivational for me.
One series or interest will somehow, in a deeply intuitive and subliminal way, lead naturally into the next work. To me, it seems like an innate flow and natural transition typifies my modus operandi. There have certainly been times when my art is directly influenced by life circumstances or my reaction to those circumstances. Life on a very personally intimate scale or on a large scale. The art can serve sometimes as documentation, therapy or an emotional necessity for self-expression; the art simply emerges, life translated into imagery.
"Representationalism, is and has been, an anchor and point de repère, something used, but is not a limiting or defining term or ends for me. I’d like to feel as if I am constantly pushing the envelope – my own envelopes."
KIM FROHSIN
1961
Born in Atlanta, GA
EDUCATION
1986
BFA, The Academy of Art College, San Francisco, CA
1979
BA in Humanities and French, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA
l’Institut pour les Etudiants Etrangers, Aix-en-Provence, France
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2023
The de Young Open, de Young Museum, San Francsico, CA
Seattle Art Fair, Lumen Field Event Center, Seattle, WA
Kim Frohsin: Figures at Ease, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA
artMRKT San Francisco, Festival Pavilion, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA
Kim Frohsin: Figurative Monochromes, Andra Norris Gallery, Burlingame, CA
2021
KIM FROHSIN – A Backward Glance, Andra Norris Gallery, Burlingame, CA
2020
Go Figure – Kim Frohsin, Andra Norris Gallery, Burlingame, CA
2019
Meditations at Mid Career: Selected Works, b.sakato garo, Sacramento, CA
2018
Kim Frohsin: Cautionary Tales, Peninsula Museum of Art, Burlingame, CA
2017
Vintage Kim Frohsin: Abstracting the Figure, Thomas Reynolds Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2016
Spring Medley: Figures & Still Life Revisited; Works by Kim Frohsin : A Selection from 2004–2014, Inclusions Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2014
Reliquaries: Exposed, Gallerie Citi, Burlingame, CA
2012
Portraits of Numbers: 2011–2012 [first floor gallery]; The White Dahlia Series: 2011 [second floor gallery], Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Portraits of the Iconic and the Mundane, SFMOMA Artist’s Gallery, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA
TEACHING
2005–2006
MFA Independent Study Advisor, The Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2014
Frohsin, Kim. Portraits of Numbers: 2010–2014. Essay by John Seed. E-pressbooks, San Francisco, CA
2012
Legacy in Continuum: Bay Area Figuration. Essay by Roberta Carasso, Ph.D. Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield, CA
2008
Figures with Edges. Essay by John Seed. Nelson Macker Fine Art, Port Chester.
Clark, Erin. “Kim Frohsin.” ARTWORKS, winter 2007–2008.
2007
Two Minutes and Counting. Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco. Essay by Peter Campion.
West Branch. Bucknell University, Lewisburg. Spring/Summer edition.
2006
ZYZZYVA, Fall, Vol. XXII #2 2006