← Back to 2024 MFA Thesis Exhibition - Visual Studies

Bryce Frimming

Auto Racing as Existential Thought

Project Statement

Auto Racing as Existential Thought is a personally developed philosophy for my art practice, being a relentless inquiry into the nature of existence, coupled with a simultaneous fear and longing for death. By immersing myself in the subculture of the automotive and motorsports world, I'm trying to articulate and confront overwhelming despair, the void of uncertainty, internal/external questioning, and my mortality with each passing moment.

An Apex of Demise depicts a wrecked Subaru world rally car livery where each car part is displaced to create the final composition. The patchwork canvas, draped across the floor, is shaped to resemble the remains of an accident. Tire markings as hand gestures using a melted race-worn tire that reads as an oil spill. Utilizing an achromatic palette of black and white, I navigate the complexities of life, with each color serving as a symbolic expression of my inner turmoil. Black represents death, dread, and the void, while white offers a stark contrast to convey the depths of my uncertainty. Like a checkered flag waving at the finish line, the use of black and white switches back and forth in my work like the binary representations of good and evil, right or wrong, and victory or defeat.

Artist Bio

Bryce Frimming is an artist currently based in Portland, Oregon. Frimming received his BS in Photography, and an MBA with an emphasis in Project Management from the University of Southern Indiana. He is an MFA in Visual Studies candidate from the Pacific Northwest College of Art. His work is heavily influenced by philosophy and auto racing culture, working in harsh achromatic tones and an aggressive style. His mixed media artwork is an investigation into Auto Racing as Existential Thought, a philosophy to articulate and confront overwhelming despair, the void of uncertainty, internal/external questioning, and his mortality with each passing moment. The result is fragile but emotionally charged artwork that expresses this endless ponder on his existence.

A large, black textile made of patched canvases with white abstract designs hangs from chains in a white brick gallery.

A square black metal plate with white streaks hangs from a chain in an art gallery.

Large black fabric with white abstract and mechanical illustrations hanging in an industrial room.

Close-up of abstract artwork on black fabric with white line drawings, including the word: MOTUL.

Black and white sketch of a tire labeled: SCORPION, with mechanical elements.

Close-up of black fabric with white patterns draped over a wooden floor.

Weathered traffic sign with a downward-curving black arrow and a wedge shape, hanging indoors.

Large black fabric with white abstract designs displayed on a wooden floor.

An interior industrial space with a large black-and-white textile artwork hanging and draping onto the floor, alongside a smaller suspended black canvas with white wave patterns.

Art installation of large black fabric with white abstract designs, hanging and spreading on the floor in an industrial space.