Pearl Faison Fryar
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Pearl Fryar was an American topiary artist from South Carolina, celebrated for his innovative free‑form garden sculptures that gained national recognition.
Particulars
Pearl Faison Fryar was born on December 4, 1939, in Clinton, North Carolina, to a sharecropper family. After attending North Carolina College in Durham, he served in the military during the Korean War and later moved to Queens, New York.
In the mid‑1970s he settled in Bishopville, South Carolina, where he worked as a factory engineer for a Coca‑Cola can plant until his retirement in 2006. While living on the outskirts of town, he began shaping discarded plants into whimsical forms, eventually creating a three‑acre topiary garden that featured over 400 sculpted specimens and eclectic "junk art" installations.
Fryar's unconventional, abstract approach earned him national attention, a documentary titled "A Man Named Pearl," and numerous honors including the Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Governor’s Award for the Arts. Partnerships with preservation groups ensured the garden’s maintenance and his legacy inspired other artists.
Pearl Fryar died at his home in Bishopville on April 4, 2026, at the age of 86, leaving behind a celebrated body of living art that transformed horticulture into a form of public sculpture.
Compiled from source reports and Wikipedia. Automated record.