Fluid States presents Drew Frazier’s five-year exploration of artistic process, transformation, and discovery. This exhibition is both a progression and a culmination: more than 400 works created over half a decade, ultimately reimagined and collaged into final compositions that embody the essence of change. In these pieces, viewers witness an intimate unfolding—moments where simple gestures swell into intricate complexity, where fragments are reshaped into wholeness, and where ink itself becomes both medium and metaphor for growth.
The origins of this work lie not in the studio but in the natural world. On long walks, Frazier collects oak galls, which—when combined with iron—become black ink, a substance steeped in centuries of history as the foundation of art and record-keeping. The process reflects metamorphosis: just as gall wasps use these organic structures as incubators until they take wing, so too do these galls undergo transformation into something enduring. This alchemy is central to Frazier’s vision, a meditation on the unseen forces of growth, release, and renewal.
At the heart of the work is the concept of flow—both as a psychological state of immersive presence and as a physical reality of ink moving across the page. Soap and bubbles introduce another dimension: effervescent orbs pressed against paper leave behind delicate spheres and organic constellations, ghostlike impressions of fragility, breath, and motion. What began as playful experimentation has become a signature element of Frazier’s practice, underscoring the relationship between chance, intention, and discovery.
