Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA)

David Gilhooly’s playful and bewildering FrogWorld ceramics originate from Gilhooly’s fascination with animals and their metaphorical connection to humans. Through his hundreds of FrogWorld sculptures, Gilhooly has woven tales of FrogFred, FrogOsiris, FrogFood, and countless other amphibious creatures modeled after historical figures into a vast mythological universe. It began in 1965 at the University of California, Davis ceramics workshop, where David attended undergraduate and graduate school after briefly working as an assistant to the sculptor Robert Arneson. During a cup making rivalry with fellow sculptors, he created a giant mushroom for a handle and set a few frogs below it. He then sculpted a FrogNapoleon, but didn’t revisit the FrogWorld until he moved to Regina, Saskatchewan, gaining inspiration from history, popular culture, and his everyday surroundings. His FrogWorld quickly multiplied, encompassing frog effigies of Egyptian gods and goddesses, garden-inspired frog fertility goddesses, a FrogVictoria dedication to Queen Victoria, everyday OurWorldFrogs, BreadFrog, and FrogFred, the embodiment of himself. The universe needed a culinary accompaniment, so Gilhooly created FrogFood, which he describes, “The frogs of the FrogWorld would go on a vacation, make themselves into a food sculpture under the direction of a professional frogartist, and as a souvenir of the occasion, take home a small sculpture.” Gilhooly has since moved on from ceramics and has experimented with bronze sculpture, printmaking, painting, and Plexiglas sculpture. In addition to teaching at the Universtiy of California, Davis, the San Jose State University, and the University of Saskatchewan, Gilhooly’s has exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1977), the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1978), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (1981).

Literature:
Chang, Camille. “The FrogWorld.” DavidGilhooly.com. David Gilhooly, 16 Nov. 2008. Web. 13 Apr. 2012.
“David Gilhooly.” Museum of Arts and Design Collections. Museum of Arts and Design, 2012. Web. 13 Apr. 2012.