Jump to content

Deborah Zlotsky

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Deborah Zlotsky
Born1962
Los Angeles, CA, US
EducationUniversity of Connecticut
Yale University
Known forPainting, drawings, textiles
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship
New York Foundation for the Arts
WebsiteDeborah Zlotsky
Deborah Zlotsky, Diaspora 3, oil on canvas, 50" x 80", 2023.

Deborah Zlotsky (born 1962) is an American abstract artist whose work focuses on painting, drawing and textiles.[1][2][3] Zlotsky's practice is informed by art history, drawing upon sources including early Renaissance frescoes and Old Masters, Surrealism, and the countercultural color and forms of psychedelia and Pop art;[4][5] her work has been likened to that of contemporary painters Thomas Nozkowski and Terry Winters.[6] Her brightly colored paintings combine soft geometric shapes, perspectival planes and unruly marks[5][6][7] in interconnected, overlapping compositions that suggest bodily or architectural systems and networks.[8][9] She uses abstraction as a metaphorical language to convey oblique narratives involving identity, human relationships, emotional states, and the complexity of contemporary life.[6][7][10] Author Carmen Maria Machado characterized Zlotsky's paintings as "at their essence, a convergence of Renaissance images and pop art, of the past and present, of science fiction and reality, of physicality and illusion."[1][11]

Zlotsky was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019 and New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) fellowships prior to that.[12][13] Her work belongs to the public art collections of the RISD Museum,[14] William Benton Museum of Art,[15] and Albany Institute of History and Art,[16] among others. Zlotsky teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and lives in the Hudson Valley, New York.[1][17]

Life and career

[edit]

Zlotsky was born in Los Angeles in 1962.[14] She graduated from Yale University with a BA in art history in 1985 and earned an MFA in painting and drawing from the University of Connecticut in 1989.[5][6] Art history studies were her entry into art-making and her early work was figurative, with imagery and forms referencing disparate 17th-19th century European and American painting sources.[4][8]

Zlotsky has had solo exhibitions at institutions including the Studio Art Center International (SACI) in Florence, Italy (2015) and Zillman Museum (2022),[18][19] as well as galleries such as Kathryn Markel Fine Arts (2011–21) and McKenzie Fine Art (2023) in New York and Robischon Gallery (2015–22) in Denver, among others.[1][8][9][10] She has appeared in group shows at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Dorsky Museum, Islip Art Museum, RISD Museum and University Art Museum at SUNY Albany.[5][20][21][22]

Zlotsky has taught at RISD since 2013, and previously, at the College of Saint Rose and University of Northern Iowa.[17]

Work and reception

[edit]
Deborah Zlotsky, The causes enumerated, oil on canvas, 36" x 36", 2013.

Zlotsky's abstract paintings fuse incongruities such as geometric and biomorphic forms, flatness and trompe-l'oeil, and intention and accident.[6][7][10] Critics have characterized them as monumental and dramatic,[23] with arrangements of projecting blocky forms, bands of color and receding spaces that take on a cubist or Escher-like architectural quality (e.g., The causes enumerated, 2013).[7][24] Up close, the paintings reveal worn textured surfaces dense with drips, smears, tape marks and abrasions[5][9][23][25]—physical imperfections that trace the history of the making.[4] Tang Museum curator Rebecca McNamara wrote, "On her canvases, the disparate don't so much blur as coexist: among and within the cleanly wrought lines, the intentional and accidental marks and smudges, the sanded-down and built-up layers, and the colors that vibrate, complement, or balance."[10]

Zlotsky's works emerge from an intuitive process that begins with first marks, shapes and color that act as catalysts for further action and discovery.[5][8][23] Critic Peter Malone commented, "Each painting is a visual layering of adjustment and resolution … processes revealed by pentimenti, scarring and other signs of manual adjustment are reformulated into illusions of sculptural relief."[7] Zlotsky sometimes furthers this effect through sparingly employed passages of trompe-l'oeil shadowing that suggest pseudo-structural supports or conduits (e.g., brackets or rods in Risk Masquerading as a Promise and Loophole, 2019) and create ambiguity amid otherwise graphic forms.[4][7][26]

Working responsively, the artist continually accumulates and revises relationships between elements to find unexpected affiliations, anomalies and anthropomorphic possibilities that connect abstract visual language to lived experience.[4][6][9][27] The interplay between flatness, hard-edged abstraction and softer organic passages give way to depth, quasi-figuration and intimations of narrative meaning.[8][10][26] Zlotsky's recurrent themes revolve around family dynamics, identity and cultural inheritance; gender; subjective internal states; and the unpredictability and blur of time characteristic of contemporary existence.[6][8][10]

In her exhibition, "Today Is Yesterday and Tomorrow" (McKenzie Fine Art, 2023), Zlotsky explored Jewishness and assimilation.[10] The "Diaspora" paintings featured emerging, disappearing and reappearing abstract colored shapes that evoke people moving across time (e.g., Diaspora 3, 2023); other works employed variably legible symbols of Judaica—the number seven, chai ("life") and a striped tallit (prayer shawl); the "Ill-fated ancient symbol" series confronted the swastika, both rendering and revising it into disorder.[10]

Deborah Zlotsky, Munter, graphite on mylar, 50" x 48", 2010.

Drawings and textile works

[edit]

Zlotsky's earlier drawings are more limited in color than her paintings, with vaporous, organic forms that have been likened to glimpses of the insides of porous bodies, imaginary or alien creatures, and exotic plants (e.g., Munter, 2010).[4][8][9][14] Begun in 2005, the "LifeLike" series was made with powdered graphite spread, blown, erased, wiped and smudged on mylar.[4][28] The series' titles fabricated from sound fragments (e.g., Manklewee, Primblurter) matched the visual impression of the work, which critic Josef Woodard described as "beguilingly strange" and operating in a "mysterious between-zone, at once vivid and vague" that bridged the anatomical and metaphysical.[28] Zlotsky's recent drawings visually align more with her paintings.[4]

Zlotsky's textile works are composed of assemblages of repurposed vintage silk scarves with added crocheted passages.[3][25] Begun within the context of COVID-19 sheltering in 2020, they share the accumulating logic and visual fluidity between parts of her paintings. These works explore themes related to gender and cultural history, the passage of time, and the appreciation of both 1960s and 1970s design sensibilities and often-undervalued craft impulses.[3]

Collections and other recognition

[edit]

Zlotsky has received a Guggenheim Fellowship (2019),[1] New York Foundation for the Arts grants (2018, 2012)[13][21] and awards from Arts Center of the Capital Region (2025) and the Studio Art Center International (SACI) (2015).[18][29] She has been awarded artist residencies from the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts,[27] Bogliasco Foundation,[30] MacDowell,[31] Ox-Bow,[23] Ragdale Foundation,[8] Virginia Center for the Creative Arts,[32] and Yaddo,[33] among others.[34][35]

Her work belongs to the public art collections of the Albany Institute of History and Art,[16] Borusan Contemporary Art (Istanbul),[6] RISD Museum,[14] Rutgers University, Waldorf Astoria,[6] and William Benton Museum of Art,[15] as well as private collections. She was commissioned to create the permanent digital print mural, Flight Plans (2020), and three temporary murals, Flight Patterns (2019), for the Albany International Airport.[36][37] The latter works were floor-to-ceiling, geometric murals painted directly on walls that Zlotsky based on paper airplanes folded by airport employees, which she unfolded and reworked into new compositions of triangular shapes.[37]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Deborah Zlotsky, Fellows. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  2. ^ Kane, Tim. "Artist Deborah Zlotsky Reveals Her Process," Times Union, February 20, 2011.
  3. ^ a b c DiPlacido, Amy. "Artist Spotlight: Deborah Zlotsky," San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, 2021. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Jablonski, Mary Kathryn. "Deborah Zlotsky: A Feminizing Perspective," Tupelo Quarterly, March 13, 2022. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Van Siclen, Bill. "Faculty Biennial opens at RISD Museum: A look at three artists," The Providence Journal, February 22, 2015. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Curley, Bob. "Controlled Chaos: Artist Deborah Zlotsky," New England Home, January–February 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Malone, Peter. "A Labyrinth of Memory Connects Paintings by Deborah Zlotsky with de Kooning," Hamptons Art Hub, October 3, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Yeapanis, Stacia. "Interview: Deborah Zlotsky," Other People's Pixels, November 2017. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  9. ^ a b c d e Derringer, Jaime. "Geometric and Natural Art by Deborah Zlotsky" Design Milk, April 8, 2013 Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h McNamara, Rebecca. Deborah Zlotsky: Today Is Yesterday and Tomorrow, New York: McKenzie Fine Art, 2023.
  11. ^ Machado, Carmen Maria. Deborah Zlotsky: New Paintings, RISD/MacDowell/Yaddo/Markel Fine Art/Robischon Gallery, 2017.
  12. ^ Artforum. "Guggenheim Foundation Names 2019 Fellows," April 11, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  13. ^ a b New York Foundation for the Arts. "NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, 1985 – Current, Grant History. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  14. ^ a b c d RISD Museum. Deborah Zlotsky, Twindle, Collection. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  15. ^ a b William Benton Museum of Art. Deborah Zlotsky, Artists. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  16. ^ a b Albany Institute of History and Art. Self-Portrait Series: Jean Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, Deborah Zlotsky, Collection. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  17. ^ a b Rhode Island School of Design. Deborah Zlotsky, Faculty. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  18. ^ a b Firenze Today. "Mostra di Deborah Zlotsky alla Saci Gallery," June 30, 2015. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  19. ^ Two Coats of Paint. "Two Coats Resident Artist: Deborah Zlotsky," October 15, 2022. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  20. ^ The Dorsky at SUNY New Paltz. "Homespun: Hudson Valley Artists," 2023. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  21. ^ a b Rogers, Pat. "Exhibition Reunites New York State Artists from the NYFA 'MARK' Program," Hamptons Art Hub, July 21, 2013. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  22. ^ University at Albany SUNY. "Artists of the Mohawk Hudson Region," 2018. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  23. ^ a b c d Glover, Douglas. "Can The Devil Speak True? – Deborah Zlotsky," Numéro Cinq, February 1, 2013. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  24. ^ Landi, Ann. "Color as Structure at McKenzie Fine Art," ARTnews, October 2014. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  25. ^ a b Cooper, Ashley Norwood. "Deborah Zlotsky: Now and later," Delicious Line, October 4, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  26. ^ a b Witkowski, Victor. "Colliding Forms: Deborah Zlotsky," Same Old Art, December 11, 2012.
  27. ^ a b Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. Deborah Zlotsky, Residents. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  28. ^ a b Woodard, Josef. "Between a Bone and an Abstract Place," Scene Magazine, September 6, 2013.
  29. ^ Arts Center of the Capital Region. "Awardees Announced! 2025. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  30. ^ Bogliasco Foundation. Fellows – Testimonials. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  31. ^ MacDowell. Deborah Zlotsky, Artists. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  32. ^ Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Columbus School for Girls Endowment Fellowship. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  33. ^ Yaddo. Our Artists. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  34. ^ Golden Foundation. "Announcing the 2023 Resident Artists!. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  35. ^ Millay Arts. Deborah Zlotsky, Artists. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  36. ^ Albany International Airport. Art & Culture Program. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
  37. ^ a b Jaeger, William. "'Patterns' exhibit offers fresh views of Albany airport," Times-Union, October 11, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2025.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deborah_Zlotsky&oldid=1302330546"