Deborah E. Roberts
EDUCATION
MFA, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
Pont-Aven School of Contemporary Art (Summer Session), Pont-Aven, France
University of North Texas, Denton, TX
AWARDS and GRANTS
2023 Texas Medal of Arts Award Honoree, Texas Cultural Trust
2019 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Finalist
2018 Anonymous Was a Woman, New York, NY,
2017, 2008 Artist of the Year, Austin, TX
2016 Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Grantee
2014 SU MFA Exhibition “Best in Show”
Syracuse University Graduate Research Fellow (2011-2014)
1991 President Point of Light Recipient, President George H. Bush
FELLOWSHIPS, RESIDENCIES and WORKSHOPS
2023 Anderson Ranch Artist in Residency, Snowmass Village, CO
2019 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency, Captiva Island, FL
2018 Fountainhead Residency, Miami, FL
Artist Workshop, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA
2014 Ginsberg-Klaus Award Fellowship, Los Angeles, CA
2006 Coronado Studios, Serie XIII, Austin, TX
Stone Metal Press, San Antonio, TX
2005 Ox –Bow Art Residency, Saugatuck, MI
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Solo Exhibitions
2023 What About Us?, Stephen Friedman Gallery, New York, NY (forthcoming)
Deborah Roberts: Come walk in my shoes, SITE SANTA FE, Santa Fe, NM
2022 Deborah Roberts: I Have Something to Tell You, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK
Deborah Roberts: A look inside, Stephen Friedman Gallery, Liverpool, UK
Deborah Roberts: I’m, Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, Jacksonville, FL
Deborah Roberts: I’m Art + Practice, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Deborah Roberts: I’m, MCA Denver, CO
2021 I’m, The Contemporary Austin, Austin, TX
O’Say Can’t You See, Vielmetter Los Angeles, CA
Frieze London, Solo Booth, Stephen Friedman, UK
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
Group and Juried Exhibitions
2023 Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (forthcoming)
The Speed of Grace Simões de Assis, São Paulo, Brasil (forthcoming)
The Conversation Continues Deborah Roberts and Niki de Saint Phalle, Gallery Mitterrand, Paris, France
True Believers Benny Andrews and Deborah Roberts, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
To Begin Again: Artists and Childhood Mary Kelly and Deborah Roberts, ICA Boston, Boston, MA
2022 From Near and Far: Collage and Figuration in the Contemporary Age Stephen
Friedman Gallery, London, UK
Black American Portraits Deborah Roberts, Genevive Gaignard and Paul Mpagi
Sepuya, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Back Girlhood Rutgers University
small acts Greyduck Gallery, Austin, TX
The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse with
Rodney McMillian and Deborah Roberts, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, TX
Assembly: New Aquisitions by Contemporary Black Artist, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin TX
The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse with
Rodney McMillian and Deborah Roberts Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, VA
The Slipstream: Reflection, Resilience, and Resistance in the Art of out Time, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2021 Past Present Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK
2020 In Real Life Art Basel Miami Beach, online viewing rooms, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK
Drawing 2020, Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY
100 Drawings from Now, The Drawing Center, New York, NY
25 Years, Stephen Friedman Vallery, London, UK
Artists for New York, Hauser & Wirth, New York, NY
True Likeness, Van Every/ Smith Galleries, Davidson College, Davidson NC
Allied with Power: African and African Daiasphora Art from the Jorge M. Perez
Collection, Perez Art Museum, Miami. Florida
Doro Olowu: Seeing Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
LA Stories, Breanau University Art Gallery, Gainesville, GA
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
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books and Exhibition Catalogues
2023 Deborah Roberts: Twenty Years of Art/ Work, Radius Books
2022 True Believers Benny Andrews and Deborah Roberts. San Antonio, TX: McNay Art Museum
I have something to tell you. London: Stephen FriedmanGallery, 2022
From Near and Far: Collage and Figuration in the Contemporary Age. London: Stephen Friedman Gallery
2021 Deborah Roberts: I’m. Austin, TX: The Contemporary Austin
Guest Designer Deborah Roberts. Zoetrope: All-Story Vol. 24 No. 4. Francis Ford Coppola Winter 20/21.
2020 Ringle, Hallie. “Deborah Roberts and Questions of Power,” Collecting Black Studies. University of Texas Press, 2020.
2019 Elliot, Patrick, Dr. Freya Gowrley, and Yuval Etgar. Cut and Paste 400 Years of Collage. Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 2019.
Barnwell Brownlee, Andrea. Deborah Roberts: The Evolution of Mimi. Atlanta: Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, 2019.
Rose King, Daniella. If they come. London: Stephen Friedman Gallery, 2019.
2018 Washington, Terence. “Deborah Roberts: At the Edge of White Spaces,” Fictions. New York: The Studio Museum in Harlem, 2018.
Selected Press Articles
2022 D’Souza, Aruna “Picturing Black Childhoos: An Artist’s Journey” NY Times, Febuary, 24, 2022.
Wilbekin, Emil “This is Deborah Roberts’ America” Essence Magazine, April 29, 2022.
White, Aude “New York Magazine Special Issue: Ten Years After Trayvon Martin” New York Magazine, January 31, 2022.
Robinson, Shantay “Deborah Roberts; Investment in Time Pays Off” Black Art in America, September 30, 2021.
Carrol, Angela N, Ethics and Controversy: Reviewing Appropriation in Black Art, Sugarcane Magazine, January 31, 2022.
2021 Florsheim, Lane “Artist Deborah Roberts- a Favorite of Beyonce and Barack Obama- Gets Her Due” Wall Street Journal, January 23, 2021.
O’Brien, Kristen “10 scintillating Austin art exhibits to get inspired by this summer” Culpturemap Austin, May 25, 2021.
Bennett, Joshua “I will not be taught how to behave” Art in America, May 4.
Jarrett, Renae “Where the Black girls are: A review of Deborah Roberts’ ‘I’m’” Sightlines, February 27.
van Ryzin, Jeanne Claire “Seeing and being seen: In a solo museum show Deborah Roberts asks us to look” Sightlines, February 27.
Barnes, Michael “Austin artist Deborah Roberts’ Contemporary show ‘I’m’ concerns the art of being seen” Austin 360, February 9.
Marius, Marley “In Deborah Roberts’s Art, an Interrogation of What Society Imposes on Black Children” Vogue Arts, January 21.
Oyeniyi, Doyin “Deborah Roberts has exhibited art worldwide. She hasn’t had a solo museum show in her hometown–until now” Texas Monthly, January 14.
2020 Pogrebin, Robin, “A Dream Deferred, For Now” New York Times, April 12.
Cohen, Alina, “Why Some Artists Turn Away Would-Be Buyers” Artsy, March 27.
2019 Reid, Hilary, “Hirshhorn Museum Celebrates Intergenerational Artist Crushes” Vulture November 6.
Fullerton, Elizabeth, “Deborah Roberts Renders the Complexity of Black Childhood in Collage” Art in America, October 7.
David Gordon, Scott, “Deborah Roberts Episode 71” Austin Art Talk Podcast, October 4.
Bellesen, David, “Been Here/Still Here” PocAMadre magazine, Fall Issue #1.
"Deborah Roberts’ unique take on blackness featured in new book” Art Daily, September 14.
Gaunt, Illa, “Texas Studio: Deborah Roberts” Arts and Culture Texas, September 30.
Minamore, Bridget, “Get Up, Stand Up Now: Q&A with Artist Deborah Roberts,” Somerset House, August 30.
Valentine, Victoria L., “The Hirshhorn Museum Asked Artists About Their Influences. Amy Sherald Chose Deborah Roberts, Jordan Casteel Selected Faith Ringgold,” Culture Type, August 25.
Valentine, Victoria L., “Black Female Artists are Headlining Exhibitions Throughout London This Summer,” Culture Type, July 21.
Lee, Erin, “10 art exhibitions to see in July,” Royal Academy of Arts Magazine, July 1.
Epps, Philomena, “Critics’ Pick London: Deborah Roberts,” ARTFORUM, July 1.
“Profile: The Artist Disrupting Perceptions of Black Youths,” Elephant Magazine, June 25.
Brady, Anna and Margaret Carrigan, “Private view: must-see gallery shows opening this June,” The Art Newspaper, May 31.
Cowan, Katy, “Exploring themes of race, identity, & gender politics: Deborah Roberts’ first solo show in Europe,” Creative Boom, May 16.
Valentine, Victoria L., “Artist Deborah Roberts Joined Susanne Vielmetter Projects Los Angeles and Has an Exhibition at Gallery’s New Downtown Space,” Culture Type, April 23, 2019.
Marcoci, Roxana, “Young Heroines: Deborah Roberts,” Mousse Magazine, April.
Henderson, Kimberly, “In Conversation with Deborah Roberts: Iconic Art for Young Black and Brown Girls,” Gallery Gurls, February 24.
2018 Weber, Jasmine, “Art Movements: Accolades,” Hyperallergic, December 13.
Onyewuwnyi, Ikechukwu Casmir, "Deborah Roberts at Luis de Jesus," Carla, Issue 13, August.
Dambrot, Shana Nys, "Deborah Roberts at Luis de Jesus," Art and Cake, June 10.
Luke, Ben, "Artist Deborah Roberts on Yinka Shonibare exhibition and why 'black is not a colour any more," Evening Standard, June 6.
Mizota, Sharon, "Roberts' powerful statement of black female identity," Los Angeles Times, May 29.
Miller, Ashia, “Deborah Roberts’ #EvolutionOfMimi art tackles heavy topic of colorism,” Rolling Out, May 25.
“Fragile but Fixable: The Collages of Deborah Roberts”, Paris Review, May 23.
Amirkhani, Jordan, "Art Review: 'The Evolution of Mimi' at Spelman Museum," BURNAWAY, April 25.
Cochran, Rebecca, "Deborah Roberts: The Evolution of Mimi," Art Papers, March 17.
Sargent, Antwaun, “The Artist Changing the Face of Black Girlhood,” VICE, March 6.
Feaster, Felicia, “The power and pathos of girlhood defines Deborah Roberts’ collages,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 6.
Van Proyen, Mark, “Deborah Roberts @ Jenkins Johnson,” Square Cylinder, February 19.
Larocca, Amy, “Portfolio: Her Breakthrough Women,” The New York Magazine, February 5.
Green, Tyler, “Deborah Roberts, Anita Witek,” Modern Art Notes Podcast, February.
Johns, Myke, “Artist Deborah Roberts ‘Emancipates’ Black Girlhood In Spelman Exhibit,” Where ATL meets NPR, January 25.
2017 Cotter, Holland, “From the Personal to the Political, 19 Artists to Watch Next Year,” The New York Times, December 27.
Mitter, Siddhartha, “Deborah Roberts Conjures Black Girl Magic,” The Village Voice, December 6.
Graves, Cassidy Dawn, “New Exhibitions: One Artist in Two Galleries, Beautiful Soup, Native Transformers,” Bedford + Bowery - New York Magazine, November 6.
Gipson, Amarie, “In Conversation with Deborah Roberts by Amarie Gipson,” Arts Black, October 25.
Mitter, Siddharta, “At ‘Fictions’ in Harlem, Young Black Artists Are on Fire,” The Village Voice, September 13.
Twersky, Carolyn, “New Studio Museum Show,” ARTNEWS, August 23.
Marino, Rebecca, “Q+A with Deborah Roberts,” Conflict of Interest, July 17.
Scott, Andrea K. “March Madness in the Meatpacking District,” The New Yorker, April 10.
Evans, Dayna, “18 Female Artists on Their Favorite Female Artists,” The Cut-New York Magazine, April 5.
Anspon, Catherine D. “Austin Gets Its Own Art Fair,” Papercity Magazine, March 30.
Kamm, Rebecca. “You Can’t Deny Us: The Artists Showcasing the Power if Female Athletes,” Broadly Vice, March 28.
Vogel, Wendy, “Critic’s Pick: New York,” ARTFORUM, March 24.
Evans, Dayna. “What Does It Mean to Be a Woman in Sports?” The Cut - New York Magazine, March 20.
2016 Knudson, Rainey. “Naming and Shaming: Deborah Roberts at Art Palace”, Glasstire, November 21.
Ryzin, Jeanne Claire van. “Contemporary art exhibit probes African-American identity, The Austin Statesmen, September 19.
2014 Huete, Betsy. “Deborah Roberts: One and Many,” Glasstire, November 29, 2014.
Ward, Jeff M. “Deborah Roberts: Reconstructing, Reacting and Rethinking at O’Kane Gallery,” Fluent Collaborative, issue 79, November 17.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
Scottish National Galleries, Scotland, UK
SFMOMA San Francisco, CA
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
Block Museum of Art, Evanston, IL
Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY
The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL
Spelman College Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY