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 after transferring from Pasadena Community College. Free was raised in Los Angeles, California.

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:
WORTHLESSSTUDIOS, The Mellon Foundation, The San Francisco Foundation, The California Endowment, and additional donors.

Free Tripp Studio INC.

Commissions

ALL ITEMS ARE HANDMADE BY FREE ALEXANDER TRIPPStudio located off Van Brunt Street in Red Hook (Brooklyn, NY)

ALL ITEMS ARE HANDMADE BY FREE ALEXANDER TRIPP
Studio located off Van Brunt Street in Red Hook (Brooklyn, NY)