Deborah Zlotsky

EXHIBITION NOTES

Deborah Zlotsky
May 14 – Jul 3, 2015

Deborah Zlotsky's boldly painted volumetric forms are paired with planes of bright, shape-shifting color. Densely layered and meticulously composed, the geometric elements which fold and twist inside-out across her canvases, emanate from the artist's keen observations of the commonplace – visually described by Zlotsky as similar to "a tangled pile of laundry or the way the light filters through my grandmother's apartment." Her painted elements feel equally activated – built, yet fluid - as they begin to deconstruct and reemerge in colors of saturated blues, flat grays, lush pinks or acid yellows. At the same time, elements of her graphite drawing practice of creating organic, interconnecting forms or inexplicable shapes occasionally merge with her colorful paintings where quirky pictorial structures connect and support the painted geometric elements.  The artist states, "My process is discovering unintended proximities and relationships, of finding logic and meaning in the unique situation as it emerges. Accidents repeatedly redirect me, blurring my understanding of the difference between accident and intention. I look for anomalies as I rearrange, reassemble and make myriad adjustments. Eventually, the confusion of relationships slipping out of balance begins to create new structures and forms. These shifts and accumulations become a way for me to respond to the necessity of change and the beauty of and complexity of living. In my work, I am interested in systems and languages emerging from the accumulation of visual relationships in continual revision. For me, the daily anxiety of multi-tasking, absorbing new contingencies and having infinite access to information is acknowledged, but also mitigated by the adjustments and repairs I make.”  Vibrant and immediate, structured and contained, is the condition of shifting opposites inherent in all of Deborah Zlotsky’s work.  Each animated painting exuberantly rides the edge of abstraction while alluding to the nature of the world that surrounds.     

Currently teaching at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, Deborah Zlotsky has a BA from Yale University and an MFA from the University of Connecticut. She has received numerous residency fellowships including: New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, Yaddo, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, VCCA, Ox-Bow, and Millay Colony for the Arts, Ragsdale Foundation, Weir Farm Art Center and the Kimmel-Harding-Nelson Center for the Arts. Zlotsky exhibits across the country and has her work included in both corporate and private collections including the Albany Institute of History and Art, Nordstroms, Rutgers University and the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, among others.