Born in Philadelphia in 1951
Frank Hyder has participated in more than 150 group shows and has had over 80 solo exhibitions throughout North, South and Central America, including 10 individual exhibitions in New York City. He has been one of the few North Americans to have solo museum exhibitions in Venezuela at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Caracas Sofia Imber (MACCSI), Museo Jacobo Borges, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Zulia (MACZUL), Museo Universidad de Los Andes and Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Coro. Other solo museum exhibitions include the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art’s Museum of American Art, the Carnegie Museum in California, the La Salle Museum of Art in Philadelphia, and the National Museum of Catholic Art and History in New York. His solo installation “New World”, which debuted at the National Museum of Catholic Art and History in East Harlem, NYC, traveled to the Degenstein Gallery at the Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, PA, the Anita Shapolsky Foundation in Jim Thorpe, PA and The Noyes Museum in Atlantic County, NJ. He was also one of ten artists whose heroic inflatables formed the “Giants in the City” exhibition in Miami during the Art Basel Miami Art Fair. He also had a six-month exhibit in the Philadelphia Airport. He is also among 80 artists selected as part of an exhibit of graduates of the Maryland Institute College of Art showcasing 160 years of artists. Hyder’s exhibition schedule is truly global, with exhibits throughout the continental U.S., Canada, Great Britain, South America, Hong Kong, Singapore and Melbourne, Australia. He has also been an Artist in Residence aboard ships of the Oceania/Prestige cruise lines, creating workshops and works on the open sea.
His work has been collected by MACCSI, Museum Jacobo Borges, MACZUL, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Ontario Museum of Art, Grand Rapids Museum of Art, Woodmere Museum, La Salle Museum, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Library of Congress and by numerous corporate and private collectors.
Major awards include a Senior Fulbright Research Grant to Venezuela, U.S. Embassy Cultural Grants, two MidAtlantic NEA Grants, two Pennsylvania State Council of the Arts Grants and an International Art Programming Network Partners Grant (Bolivia, Peru, Turkey). Public commissions include Mt. Airy Redevelopment Authority in Philadelphia; the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program “Hanging Garden of I-95”, “Honey’s Garden” and “Bell’s Pond” wall murals; Terminal Freezer, Oxnard, CA, ceramic wall mural; “Return to Nature” mural at the CEVAM Language School in Merida, Venezuela; and the Museo Jacobo Borges “Bridge of Life” ceramic walkway in Caracas, Venezuela.
In 2015 Hyder created The Janis Project with his large-scale, double-faced inflatable sculptures. Through Oceania Cruise Line’s Artist in Residence program, Janis traveled the entire coast of Europe form Istanbul to St. Petersburg, including the British Isles. The Janis Project continues to travel the world with it’s growing number of sculptures.