Deborah Roberts (visual artist)
Deborah Roberts (born 1962) is an American contemporary artist living and working in Austin, Texas. Consisting primarily of mixed media collage, Roberts’s work takes on the subject of otherness as understood against the backdrop of existing societal norms of race and beauty. Since graduating with an MFA from Syracuse University in 2014, she has exhibited widely. Her work has been shown at the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York; SF MOMA, San Francisco, California; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York. Work. Roberts’s work challenges the existing notion of a universal  beauty, arguing instead for a more inclusive and subjective understanding of visual culture. By combining found and manipulated images with hand drawn and painted details, Roberts leverages the artistic practice of collage to uplift and dimensionalize her subjects, often taking the form of young girls and, more increasingly, Black boys. The boys and girls who populate her work, while invariably bound to the complicated the problematic narratives defining American, African American and art history, are, at the same time, free and able to forge their own paths and form their own identities. She is currently represented by Stephen Friedman Gallery , London and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, CA. Selected solo exhibitions. 2021 The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA The Slipstream: Reflection, Resilience, and Resistance in the Art of Our Time, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY I’m, The Contemporary Austin, Austin, TX and MCA Denver, Denver, CO 2019 If they come, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK Native sons: Many thousands gone, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles, CA 2018 Fragile but Fixable, Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA Uninterrupted, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA Deborah  Roberts: The Evolution of Mimi, Spelman College Museum of Fine Arts, Atlanta, GA 2017 Untitled, Solo Booth Art Fair Miami Basel, Miami Beach, FL in-gé-nue, Fort Gansevoort Gallery, New York, NY Nobody’s Darling: New Works by Deborah Roberts, Christian-Green Gallery, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 2016 Coil, Coarse, Twist, Re-twist, Art Palace, Houston, TX 2014 One and Many, Art Palace, Houston, TX Domestic Disturbance, Diverse Art Gallery, Austin, TX Consensual Marks, South Dallas Cultural Center, Dallas, TX 2013 When We Just Existed, Community Folk Art Center, Syracuse, NY 2011 Resistance Begins at Home : Rethinking Otherness, South Dallas Cultural Center, Dallas, TX 2008 Forks and Spoons, South Dallas Cultural Center, Dallas, TX 2006 Bearing Witness, Stone Metal Press, San Antonio, TX Reconstructing, Rethinking, Reacting, O’Kane Gallery, Houston, TX 2004 Chicago Culture Center (South Shore) Chicago, IL Center for African & African American Studies, Austin, TX Selected group exhibitions. 2019 Re/Devaluing Colorism: Intersections of Skin Color and Currency, Southwest School of Art, San Antonio, TX The Outwin 2019: American Portraiture Today, The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC Melissa Cody, Bethany Collins, and Deborah Roberts: Heritage, Rebecca Camacho Gallery, San Francisco, CA Charles White and  the Legacy of the Figure: Celebrating the Gordon Gift, Art Galleries at Black Studies, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX Cut and Paste | 400 Years of Collage, The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK Get Up, Stand Up Now – Generations of Black Creative Pioneers, Somerset House, London, UK Seeing Now, 21c Museum Hotel Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City, OK Plumb Line: Charles White and the Contemporary, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA Still I Rise, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA 2018 Talisman In The Age Of Difference, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK In  the Eye of the Beholder, Tarble Arts Center, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, SC Go Figure, Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH Soul Recordings, Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA Reclamation! Pan-African from the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA Legacy of the Cool: A Tribute to Barkley L. Hendricks, MassArt Museum, Boston, MA Constructing Identity in America (1766–2017), Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ Sidelined, Galerie Lelong, New York, NY 2017 Fictions, Studio Museum of Harlem, New York, NY Your Body is a Battleground, Volta Art Fair, New York, NY March Madness, Fort Gansevoort, New York , NY 2016 I know why the caged bird sings, Carver Museum, Austin, TX 2015 Gently Fried, Mexican American Cultural Center, Austin, TX The House on Mango Street, National Mexican American Museum, Chicago, IL 2014 The Way Out – MFA, Rogue Space, New York, NY 2013 Gender Is A Kind of Doing, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Art Galleries, San Francisco, CA 2011 Viewing Program, The Drawing Center, New York, NY Miráme: 21st century portraits for Latino/a America, La Raza Galería Posada, Sacramento, CA 2009 Women of Color, Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland, CA Her Stories, Park School, Baltimore, MD 2007 Taking  Possession, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AR Counter Intuitive, Chicago State University, Chicago, IL 2006 Uncle Tom to Peeping Tom, Union Art Gallery, University of Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI Boundless, Perceptions from Within, DAC, Austin, TX 2005 Juried Exhibition, Museum of Science and Industry,  Chicago, IL Juried Exhibition, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL Subjective Visions, University of Texas San Antonio, San Antonio, TX Figure It Out, Art Palace, Austin, TX 2004 Susan Woodson Gallery, Chicago, IL Unmasked: A Collective Statement on Beauty, Butridge Gallery, Austin, TX 2003 Bird Juried Exhibition, Concordia University, Austin, TX Our Heritage – Creating New  Legacies, Juried Exhibition, Butridge Gallery, Austin, TX Juried Exhibition, Austin Bergstrom International Airport, Austin, TX 2002 Center for African American Studies, University of Texas, Austin, TX Collections. Roberts's work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York; MCA Denver, Denver, Colorado; Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia; LACMA, Los Angeles, California; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas; and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, among various other institutions.