Madgalena Suarez Frimkess

Magdalena Suarez Frimkess is known for her collaborative ceramic sculptures with her husband, Michael Frimkess, which combine traditional pottery forms with images of popular culture and mass media icons. Suarez Frimkess also maintains her own ceramics practice.

Born in Venezuela, Suarez Frimkess studied at the Caracas School of Plastic Arts and later moved to Chile, where she studied at Catholic University in Santiago and quickly became acclaimed as a clay sculptor. Following her move to New York to pursue additional opportunities, Suarez Frimkess met Michael, also a clay artist, and the two moved to Los Angeles, eventually settling in Venice. After her husband’s diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, Suarez Frimkess began collaborating with him, and the two have continued to work together for the last fifty years.

Suarez Frimkess has exhibited her work in solo exhibitions at South Willard Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, and at Kaufman Repetto in New York, among others. Her work has been exhibited in numerous group exhibitions, including at the Museum of Art and Design, New York; Deitch Projects, New York; the American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, CA; and the MAK Center in Los Angeles, CA. Suarez Frimkess and Michael Frimkess have also exhibited their collaborative work at Louis Stern Fine Arts and at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, among other venues.

Suarez Frimkess’ works can be found in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Hammer Museum, and at the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA. In 2001, Michael and Magdalena were interviewed for the Smithsonian Archives of American Art Oral History interview series.