Turning Point, The Return

Helen Frederick

August 9 - September 1, 2025

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Stellarhighway is excited to mount a special viewing of Turning Point, The Return (1987) by Helen Frederick. This is only the third time that Frederick's unique masterwork has been unveiled: the first being at The Fabric Workshop in 1987 when it was created, and then again in 2008 at Virginia Commonwealth University when she was awarded the Southern Graphics Printmaker Emeritus award. This unique artist book was printed by Will Smith and Betsy Damos on fine French silk at The Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia, PA, and conceptualized at Pyramid Atlantic, Hyattsville, MD.

In addition to Turning Point, The Return we will have two other titles by Frederick on hand, PARTS OF THE BODY (1991-1993) and The View Is Daunting (2002), bringing together three emblematic works from these decades.

PARTS OF THE BODY is an editioned artist book by DC-based Poet Buck Downs, printed by Gordan Fluke with images by Helen Frederick. It is an extended, yet fragmented, love poem cast in the image of a radio continually flipping through stations in a flurry of quotations, interruptions, and talk. Featuring eight original etchings and woodcuts, printed on translucent Japanese Okawara and with a binding designed by John Wood and Laurie Snyder, this near weightless artist book becomes a luxurious counterpoint to the frenetic text they accompany. The edition is printed using Weiss type letterpress with a wrapper and box of hand formed paper containing flax fibers from the garden of Pyramid’s Riverdale location. This titles lives in the collections of George Mason University Fenwick Library Artist Book Collection, Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, Yale University Library, Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design, Decker Library at Maryland Institute College of Art, and Penrose Library at Whitman College.

The View is Daunting is a panoramic survey of the concept shift in humanity that took place in the late 1990s and early 2000s, exploring the pervasive leap from analog to digital technologies as a means to describe that nature itself is a form of mind: “Whatever great advances we make, we come back to the struggle between inner and outer life. So I believe that technology always swings back to our convictions and our need to believe that nature and human technology have to work together, and they’re the same; otherwise, we’re destroying ourselves.” This editioned book is printed via indigo offset on Acquerello 200 gr paper, and produced by AD Graphics, Athens, Greece. The View is Daunting is in the public collection of the Fenwick Library Artist Book Collection at George Mason University.

Helen Frederick (b. 1945) is recognized as a distinguished artist, curator, educator, coordinator of international projects, and as founder of Pyramid Atlantic. As an advocate for and an active participant in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area arts scene, she has served on the directorial boards of alternative art spaces, various local and national boards and peer-review panels. Frederick has carried out speaking engagements around the world, always emphasizing collaboration across disciplines. Throughout her life, her passion for diverse places and histories has led to extensive travel in order to observe the material cultures of societies around the world, their skills and ideas, while making connections between disparate cultural traditions.

Major solo exhibitions include Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA; Dieu Donne Gallery, New York; McLean Center for the Arts, McLean, VA; University for the Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh, PA; and Henie Onstad Museum, Oslo, Norway. Group exhibitions include Tokushima Museums of Modern Art, Tokushima, Japan; Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Silver Spring, MD; Voorhees Zimmerli Museum, New Brunswick, NJ; RISD Museum of Art, Providence, RI; Federal Reserve Board, Washington, DC; National Museum for the Arts, Washington, DC; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; and, Leopold-Hoesch Museum, Duren, Germany. Frederick has taught numerous workshops and held residencies at Oxbow, Penland, Haystack, Hood College and Kent State University, to name a few. Additionally she has been awarded from ARTABLE, NEA/MidAtlantic Arts Foundation and Fulbright. Selected public collections include Whitney Museum of Art, New York, NY; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; Yale Rare Book Collection, New Haven, CT; Ohio Sate University, Columbus, Ohio; Oslo Municipal Museum, Oslo, Norway; New York Public Library, New York, NY; National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin; and, Rare Book Library, Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA.

Please contact Stellarhighway for more information.