{"id":633355,"date":"2026-04-28T04:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T04:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/633355\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T04:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T04:16:12","slug":"how-contemporary-artists-are-turning-the-frame-into-a-medium-of-its-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/633355\/","title":{"rendered":"How contemporary artists are turning the frame into a medium of its own"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Phu\u031bo\u031bng Nguye\u0302\u0303n\u2019s exhibition at the Art Gallery Burlington in Ontario highlights the artist’s exploration of how framing is crucial to making an artwork work.DARREN RIGO\/Supplied<\/p>\n

In Phu\u031bo\u031bng Nguye\u0302\u0303n\u2019s exuberant pieces, it\u2019s hard to know where the work ends and the frame begins. For the last few years, the Toronto-based artist has surrounded her work with increasingly fantastical details in ornately sculpted wood and ceramic. These \u201cframes\u201d not only complement her subject matter but become part of the narrative.<\/p>\n

Nguye\u0302\u0303n says that she began focusing on making frames for her pieces after experimenting with shards of pottery that a business in Toronto\u2019s Chinatown was poised to throw away. Nguye\u0302\u0303n now uses everything from vibrant viscose twine to freshwater pearls to add adornment to the frames, taking them into a dimension beyond the historic relationship between an artwork and its mounting. \u201cI\u2019m at a point where my work feels a bit more expansive,\u201d Nguye\u0302\u0303n says about the relationship her hand-made, suggestive frames have with her still life and figurative paintings. <\/p>\n

Nguye\u0302\u0303n isn\u2019t alone in exploring how framing is crucial to making an artwork work. New York-based Ben Cowan\u2019s oeuvre includes architectural framing that amplifies the details of his spiritual and botanical oil works. At Stephanie Temma Hier\u2019s recent show, Swan Song, at Anton Kern Gallery in Manhattan, the artist showcased idiosyncratic paintings delineated by textural frames featuring glazed stoneware sculptures of shoes, a rose-festooned trellis, and the titular bird in an evocative pose. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Shroud hand (orchard mantis) by Marigold Santos. The Calgary-based artist’s recent shows in Toronto featured spellbinding frames fabricated by her partner, Yarko Yopyk.DARREN RIGO\/Supplied<\/p>\n

Closer to home, Montreal\u2019s Maude Corriveau experimented with shapely frames to suit a series of sensuous pastel works in an exhibition called Contours. For the Salon 44 fundraiser benefitting the artist-run centre Gallery 44, Hannah Doucet crafted a frame out of printed, three-dimensional gloves that cradled a photo. And Calgary-based interdisciplinary artist Marigold Santos\u2019s two most recent shows at Patel Brown Gallery in Toronto have featured spellbinding frames fabricated by Santos\u2019s partner, Yarko Yopyk. <\/p>\n

\u201cHer paintings are compelling, concentrated, and confident, and so are her framing selections,\u201d says Patel Brown\u2019s gallery director, Jennifer Simaitis. \u201cThe stain and grain of the frames often mimic the colours and mark-making found within the works themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The increased attention paid to framing is something Sonja Scharf, co-creative director of Akasha Art Projects Inc. in Toronto\u2019s Cabbagetown neighbourhood, enjoys. While she notes that Toronto\u2019s taste for framing has generally been on the milder side, she and partner Kelly Kyle have worked with both artists and clients to achieve some remarkable and boundary-breaking results.<\/p>\n

Scharf notes that while some framing should play a supporting role to the artwork\u2019s central function, the more integral \u2013 or influenced \u2013 by the art the frame is, the more compatible, and perhaps inseparable, it will become. For one client, Akasha\u2019s team used a glossy textured black frame to pick up on the mosaic embellishment of a mixed-media work. Scharf says that it was like \u201ca marriage\u201d rather than the art being the main attraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cFraming is increasingly a considered choice rather than an afterthought. Collectors are more adventurous, often collaborating with artists, galleries, and framers to select options that both protect the work and reflect the personality of the space it inhabits,\u201d Simiatis says. \u201cThere are far more possibilities than just white or black frames, and a home doesn\u2019t need to feel sterile or museum-like. As long as it honours the artwork, I say have fun with it \u2013 framing should combine form and function.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Phu\u031bo\u031bng Nguye\u0302\u0303n\u2019s exhibition at the Art Gallery Burlington in Ontario highlights the artist’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75,2922],"class_list":["post-633355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-noastack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}