ED FRAGA
Ed Fraga was born in Imlay City, Michigan. In 1980 he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. He has exhibited his paintings throughout the Detroit area for the past 40 years. His paintings and drawings are in the public collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The University of Michigan Museum of Art, The Detroit Institute of Arts, Cranbrook Art Museum, Flint Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Fraga’s first solo show was in 1984 at the Feigenson Gallery, once situated in the heart of Detroit on the third floor of the Fisher Building. Fraga has shown his work in solo exhibitions in New York City in 2002 and 2007. He is a recipient of an Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, a Kresge in Detroit Artist Fellowship, an Awards in the Visual Arts 8, a Midwest National Endowment for the Arts and a Rockefeller Foundation residency in Bellagio, Italy. In 2008 he received an Ovation Award from Wayne State University, as a distinguished alumnus. His work explores social, cultural and religious themes using various media. Usually concept driven, Fraga’s work involves exhaustive personal investigation into the subjects and themes. He is primarily a figurative painter, but often seeks alternative methods and forms to present ideas. The history of Art plays an important part in Fraga’s work, always contextualizing his place as a contemporary with the art of the past. “I describe myself as a non-linear artist, in that, my art doesn’t always look like it is by the same artist. I try new things in ways that confuse even myself.”