Free Alexander Tripp is a furniture maker and sculptor working in Brooklyn.
Free graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 2018. Free was raised in Los Angeles, California.
Co-Owner of Studio CareFree
Studio CareFree is the joint venture of Free and his wife Caroline Doyle, long-time collaborators who work in furniture design and fabrication. They utilize their backgrounds in woodworking, ceramics, and metalworking to create beautifully decorated and engineered work. They make furniture and objects for real use, developed over time and in close proximity to how they live.
www.studiocarefree.com
@studiocarefree
Fabrication and Design Direction for WORTHLESSSTUDIOS a 501(c)3 nonprofit
Free has serves as program director, technical advisor, fabricator, and designer for WORTHLESSSTUDIOS since its founding in 2018. Free works hands-on to take projects from concept to completion, assisting artists and collaborators in realization of socially-engaged works that are primarily large-scale sculptural installations and public artworks. With the support of the NEA, Mellon Foundation, LMCC, New York State Council on the Arts, and other foundations, WORTHLESSSTUDIOS has produced programs such as Photographer In Residence, Plywood Protection Project, and their annual fabrication-focused Residency.
www.worthlessstudios.org
@worthlessstudios
Supported by: Mellon Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, NYS Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, NYC Cultural Affairs, Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Exhibition Designer and Creative Producer for 1-800 Happy Birthday
1-800 Happy Birthday is a multi-format project and living memorial that celebrates the heavenly birthdays of the Black and Brown lives killed by police violence, created by filmmaker and artist Mohammad Gorjestani in deep collaboration with their families and Even/Odd, WORTHLESSSTUDIOS, and Campaign Zero.
The project began as a series of short films in 2014 and evolved to a digital voice mail archive where loved ones and the public could leave birthday messages for individuals killed by police. The project later expanded into a large-scale immersive exhibition and public installation in Brooklyn, NY, through a partnership with WORTHLESSSTUDIOS. Free was the exhibition designer, fabrication engineer, and creartive producer for 1-800 Happy Birthday NADA NYC (2022); 1-800 Happy Birthday, McCarren Park, Brooklyn (2022); 1-800 Happy Birthday, WORTHLESSSTUDIOS, Brooklyn (2022-2023), 1-800 Happy Birthday Michael O.D. Brown, Urban League, St. Louis (2024); 1-800 Happy Birthday, For-Site Guardhouse, San Francisco (2026); Happy Heavenly Birthday Oscar, Black Panther Party Museum, Oakland (2026).
1-800 Happy Birthday rejects the notion that memory must be anchored in tragedy. By centering birthdays instead of death, each call becomes an act of love, a defiant gesture against erasure and forgetting.
1800happybirthday.com
@1800happybirthday
Supported by: Mellon Foundation, The San Francisco Foundation, The California Endowment, and additional donors.