# Deanna Sirlin

Deanna Sirlin (born March 7, 1958) is an American contemporary artist best known for her large-scale installations and paintings. Sirlin's art has been shown all over the world and includes massive installations that dominate entire buildings in Venice, Italy, Atlanta, Georgia, London, England, Antalya, Turkey, New Orleans, Louisiana and Evora, Portugal.

## Education

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Sirlin attended the Brooklyn Museum Art School and earned a BA in Art from the State University of New York at Albany (1978). While at SUNY, Sirlin studied painting under Mark Greenwald and art history with Ann Sutherland Harris. Sirlin earned an MFA in Painting from Queens College, City University of New York (1980), where she studied under artists Gabriel Laderman, Charles Cajori, Benny Andrews, and Clinton Hill, and art critic Robert Pincus-Witten.

## Exhibitions

* 2022 Borders of Light and Water, Palazzo Bembo, European Cultural Centre, Venice, Italy (as part of the 59th Biennale)
* 2022 Watermark, Crosland Library, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia
* 2022 Wavelength, Chastain Arts Center, OCA City of Atlanta, Georgia
* 2020 Strata, Fundação Eugénio de Almeida, Évora, Portugal
* 2019 Variation, Alpharetta Arts Center, Alpharetta, Georgia
* 2018 Translucence, Gallery 72, Office of Cultural Affairs, City of Atlanta, Georgia
* 2015 Upended, Neuer Worpsweder Kunstverein, Worpswede, Germany
* 2012 Emergency Orange, M55 Gallery Art, New York City, New York
* 2012 Under and Over: New Collages, The Art Collaborative, Atlanta, Georgia
* 2009 Everything is Optional, Whitespace Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
* 2006 Circling, Centre for Recent Drawing, London, UK
* 2006 Red Eye Love, Plus Gallery, Denver Colorado
* 2006 Notes to Self, Ferst Center for the Arts, Georgia Tech, Atlanta Georgia
* 2005 It’s All In My Head, Hartsfield- Jackson International Airport, Atlanta Georgia
* 2005 Up to My Eyeballs, Ty Stokes Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
* 2004 Gestures, Antalya Cultur Centre, Antalya. Turkey
* 2004 New Work, Ty Stokes Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
* 2003 New Work, Saltworks Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
* 2002 The Arrangement of Things, Coach Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
* 2001 Punto di Fuga [Vanishing Point], Universita Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Venice, Italy
* 2000 After Painting, Laredo Center for the Arts, Laredo, Texas
* 1999 Retracings, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
* 1999 Retracing Retracing, Resource Forum, Atlanta, Georgia
* 1999 Into the Blue, Solomon Projects, Atlanta, Georgia
* 1998 In Retrospect: Paintings From the Last Decade, Buckhead Plaza, Atlanta
* 1996 Quaternity, The Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, Georgia
* 1995 Forecasts, Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia traveled to Cheekwood Fine Arts Center, Nashville, Tennessee, and the Hudgins Center, Duluth, Georgia
* 1994 Between Heaven and Earth, The Autrey Mill Project, Alpharetta, Georgia.
* 1993 Deanna Sirlin: Paintings, Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
* 1989 Deanna Sirlin: Paintings, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia
* 1988 Deanna Sirlin: Paintings, Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
* 1987 Deanna Sirlin: Paintings, Omni Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
* 1987 Deanna Sirlin: Paintings, Berry College, Rome, Georgia
* 1986 Deanna Sirlin: Paintings, Philip Morris Gallery, Richmond, Virginia
* 1986 Deanna Sirlin: Paintings, Catholic University, Washington, D.C.
* 1985 Deanna Sirlin: Paintings, Sarah Y. Rentschler Gallery, New York City
* 1985 Deanna Sirlin: Paintings, Long Island University Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
* 1985 Deanna Sirlin: Paintings, Foundation Gallery, Norfolk, Virginia
* 1983 Deanna Sirlin: Paintings, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, New York
* 1993 Deanna Sirlin: Paintings, The Studio School and Gallery, Johnson City, New York
* 1981 Deanna Sirlin: Paintings, Smedley's Gallery, Ithaca, New York

## Installations

Sirlin is perhaps best known for her pivotal installation "Retracings," which encompassed virtually the entire glass front of Atlanta's High Museum of Art in 1999. She is included in the High Museum of Arts permanent collection.

## Writing

Sirlin is the editor-in-chief of The Art Section, an online arts and culture journal that has been publishing since 2007. She wrote for ART PAPERS magazine between 1993 and 2007. She was the weekly art critic for Creative Loafing in 2010. She has written art reviews for Arts ATL since 2017. Her book "She's Got What It Takes: American Women Artists in Dialogue" was published by Charta Books in 2013. The book was reviewed by Andrew Alexander for Creative Loafing magazine. Sirlin received a Creative Capital Warhol Foundation Award for Art Writing in 2010 mentored under Hayden Herrera.

## Grants and honors

* 2020 Grant, United States Artists, Chicago, IL
* 2020 Grant, Georgia Chapter of The National Museum of Women in the Arts. Washington, DC
* 2019 Artist in Residence, Cini Foundation, Venice, Italy
* 2019 Artist in Residence, City of Alpharetta, Georgia
* 2019 Individual Artist Grant, Fulton County Arts Council, Georgia
* 2017 Individual Artist Grant, Fulton County Arts Council, Georgia
* 2016 United States Department of State, Grant
* 2016 Rothko Foundation International Painting Symposium Artist in Residence
* 2012 Mini-Grant, City of Milton, Georgia to make art with the community
* 2010 Creative Capital Warhol Foundation Award for Art Writing
* 2009 Artist in Residence, Padies Chateau, Lempaut, France
* 2008 Fulton County Arts Council, Small And Emerging Arts Organizations Grant
* 2002 Artist in Residence, Nürnberg, Germany
* 2002 Artist in Residence, Kunsthaus Project- Heidenheim, Germany
* 2002 Artist in Communities Grant, Fulton County Arts Council, Atlanta
* 1999 Artist's Grant, CGR Advisors, Atlanta, Georgia
* 1997 Honoree for Visual Arts by Secretary of State, Georgia
* 1996 Artist's Grant, Arts Festival, [as part of the 1996 Olympics] Atlanta, Georgia
* 1994 Individual Artist Grant, Georgia Council for the Arts
* 1994 Artist's Grant, Fulton County Arts Council, Georgia
* 1992 Independent Artist Grant, Fulton County Arts Council, Georgia
* 1992 Artist Project Grant, BCA, City of Atlanta
* 1987 Artists’ Space Grant, New York City
* 1983 Artist Residency Yaddo Foundation, Saratoga Springs, New York

## Selected collections

* Larson-Juhl, Atlanta, Georgia
* General Electric
* Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, Georgia
* Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences, Macon, Georgia
* Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia
* Mark Rothko Centre, Daugavpils, Latvia
* Shenzhen Institute of Fine Arts, Shenzhen, PR China
* Universita Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Venice, Italy
* Kunsthaus Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany
* High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
* Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia
* Atlanta Gas Light, Atlanta, Georgia
* Georgia Pacific, Atlanta, Georgia
* United Airlines, Dulles Airport, Washington, D.C.
* CSX Corporation, Richmond, Virginia
* Southern Progress Corporation, Birmingham, Alabama
* THW and Associates, San Diego, California
* Penny McCall Foundation, New York, New York
* McKinsey and Co., Atlanta, Georgia
* Egleston Children's Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia
* Citihome Developers, Atlanta, Georgia
* Troutman-Sanders, Atlanta, Georgia
* Childress Klein, Atlanta, Georgia
* Aon Hewitt, Atlanta, Georgia
* Colorchrome, Atlanta, Georgia
* Casas, Benjamin, and White, LLC, Atlanta, Georgia
* Wells Corporation, Minneapolis, Minnesota
* Georgia Power, Atlanta, Georgia
* Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, Atlanta, Georgia
* Herman Miller, Atlanta, Georgia
* Pope and Land, Atlanta, Georgia
* Cousins Properties, Atlanta, Georgia