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Debra Drexler
"Yellow Language" Contemporary Abstract Painting with lavender, blue and violet

2021

About the Item

60"x48" abstract composition in golden yellow with lavender, violet and light cream. Large gestural movements overlay one and other on the on canvas. The painting surface incorporates impasto brushwork and poured paint to give an active composition. This painting is signed on reverse by the artist, Debra Drexler. Debra Drexler maintains studios in both New York and Oahu, Hawaii, and her work is informed by her unique bi-coastal experience. In her luminous, large-scale abstract paintings, she brings the transcendent experience of the Hawaiian landscape to a New York audience. Through her New York based studio and curatorial practices, she is also deeply engaged in critical conversation surrounding new abstraction. She states “Abstraction takes us to a state of timelessness that is primal in its humanity, disconnecting us momentarily from the mediated “now” of our electronic devices, and connecting us to a “now” that gives us a glimpse of the infinite. While our insistent digital projections can take us away from both our animal and spiritual nature, abstract painting reminds us again of what it means to be human. The corporality of the paint mirrors the flesh of the body and transports us into the timeless.” Debra Drexler's paintings are informed both by participating in the contemporary resurgence of abstraction coming out of New York, and by living in the Post Colonial Pacific for close to three decades. In the 21st century, much of our experience is mediated through the screens of our devices. In contrast, the making and viewing of paintings remains a direct, engaging experience in Drexler's paintings. She aims to take us to a state of timelessness that is primal in its humanity, disconnecting us momentarily from the mediated “now” of our electronic devices, and connecting us to a “now” that gives us a glimpse of the infinite. As a colorist, Debra Drexler provokes unexpected color relationships and creates spatial contradictions that come from those interactions. Some of her color choices reference the post digital experience with its highly saturated synthetic color. The luminosity and saturation also mirror the unique quality of light and tropical color interactions in Hawai’i, where Drexler also lives. Her work is driven by an athletic painting process, where she works back and forth between the floor and the wall. Numerous layers, which contrast areas of depth and flatness, organic and synthetic color, matt and gloss surfaces, create complex spatial interactions. Often Drexler adds an unexpected element that deconstructs and flattens and suggests another reading of space and time. "Although the Internet makes all eras accessible at once, I believe contemporary painting must go beyond a mere repetition of historic styles. I strive to create something new, present, and honest in the painting. In a time in which everything seems to be happening at the same moment, forcing us to live in an increasingly distracted and connected present, my work aims to take us out of our distracted state and into a relationship with our animal and spiritual natures that is more grounded, focused, and aware. The fleshy materiality of the paint mirrors our fleshy body; the expansiveness of the painting, our expansiveness." - Debra Drexler Debra Drexler has had over thirty solo and over 100 group exhibitions in national and international venues. Recently, she has also worked with a number of galleries in New York, Brooklyn, and New Jersey, including The Dorado Project (solo, 2016), Van Der Plas Gallery (solo, 2018, 2017, and 2015; three person, 2014), Gallery Gary Giordano (two-person, 2017), and H.P. Garcia Gallery (solo, 2009, 2010)). Group exhibition venues include The Drawing Center, Exit Art, The Curator Gallery, Ground Floor Gallery, Denise Bibro, Sideshow Gallery, Stephan Stoyanov Gallery, Creon Gallery, and Art Finance Partners. She has a forthcoming three-person exhibition at Maui Arts and Cultural Center (2020). In 2017 she received strong reviews in Whitehot Magazine and Arte Fuse, and was featured on The Kalm Report. A recent review (Whitehot Magazine, 2017) described Drexler’s work as clearly referencing the long tradition of American abstraction and the established legacy of the New York School. The reviewer, Jonathan Goodman, however, described the work as a “new non-objectivity” that comes out of the current moment. He states that Drexler’s painting “quite accurately describes the spirit of abstract art today, in which painting is struggling to break free of the constraints of time.” Drexler’s installation, Gauguin’s Zombie, which traveled from the Honolulu Museum (2002) to Maui Arts and Culture Center (2003) to White Box-The Annex, New York (2005), continues to be cited in academic publications such as The Transatlantic Zombie: Slavery, Rebellion and Living Death (Rutgers University Press, 2015), and in Gauguin’s Challenge: New Perspectives After Postmodernism, (Bloomsbury, 2018). Debra Drexler is a Professor of Drawing and Painting at the University of Hawai’i.
  • Creator:
    Debra Drexler (American)
  • Creation Year:
    2021
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 60 in (152.4 cm)Width: 48 in (121.92 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU69211649502

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REPRESENTATION Artspace Warehouse Los Angeles EXHIBITIONS 2022 The Unknown Nature of Being, Tubac Center of the Arts, Tubac, AZ 2021 Surfing Madonna Save the Ocean, Escondido Municipal Gallery, Escondido, CA Mission Valley Artwalk @ Little Italy, San Diego, CA Twenty Women Artists: NOW - Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside, CA 2020 20/20: Twenty Women of Vision, Fresh Paint Gallery, San Diego, CA 2019 OMA Artist Alliance: Creative License,- Sparks Gallery, San Diego, CA The First Artist’s Invitational, Swift Gallery, San Diego, CA Mission Federal Artwalk @ Little Italy, San Diego, CA Artwalk @ Liberty Station, San Diego, CA 2018 Informal Languages, Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles Prom Dress: Seventeen on Being 17, Cannon Gallery, Carlsbad, CA 2017 Featured Artist Exhibition, SACCA, Tucson, AZ Pop Futurism and Abstraction, Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2010 Abstract Paintings, Ventana Canyon, Ventana medical Systems, Inc, Tucson, AZ 2007 hand + spirit + art, Tohono Chul, Tucson, AZ The Practice of Abstract Painting, The Drawing Studio, Tucson, AZ 2000 Crosscurrents, The Gallery at the Tucson International Airport, Tucson, AZ 1997 Art Spirit, Shemer Art Center, Phoenix, AZ Desert Reflections, Ironwood Gallery, Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum, Tucson AZ 1996 Two person show, Tucson Jewish Community Center Fine Art Gallery, Tucson AZ From Earth to Art, Pink Adobe Gallery, Tucson, AZ 1995 Designer Showcase ’95, Tucson Museum of Art and ASID, Tucson, AZ 1993 Four Person Exhibit, After Image Gallery, Silver City, NM Alumni Show, WMNU McCray Gallery, Silver City, NM SACA Show, Desert Artisans Gallery, Tucson, AZ 1992 WNMU McCray Gallery, Silver City, NM All Fired Up, Impressions Gallery, Tucson, AZ 1991 Southern AZ Clay Artists, Impressions Gallery, Tucson, AZ 1988 Graduate Show, WNMU McCray Gallery, Silver City, NM AWARDS 2022 The Unknown Nature of Being, Best of Show Award 2010 Ventana Canyon Abstract Paintings, Honorable Mention 1997 Desert Reflections, Honorable Mention 1993 Southern AZ Clay Artists, Cash Award 1992 WNMU Miller Library Permanent Collection, Purchase Award COLLECTIONS USC Fisher Museum of Art permanent collection, Los Angeles, CA WNMU Miller Library permanent collection, Silver City, NM Law Office of Jojene Mills, Tucson, AZ Karp and Weiss, Tucson, AZ Farrell and Bromile, Tucson, AZ Crescent Real Estate, Fort Worth, TX Gavi Italian Restaurant Corporation, Tucson, AZ Myerscoff Restaurant Corporation, Inc., Charleston, IL Numerous Private Collections INSTALLATIONS 2006 Ceramic Installation, Ford Elementary School, TUSD,Tucson, AZ 2005 Ceramic Installation and Painted Mural, Gavi Italian Restaurant, Tucson AZ 2005 Ceramic Installation, Private Residence, Tucson AZ 2004 Ceramic Installation, Ochoa Elementary School, TUSD, Tucson, AZ MEDIA COVERAGE 2021 Interview, CBS Channel 8, San Diego PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS Time for Women Artists, San Diego, CA American Women Artists, Chesterfield, MA EDUCATION 2018 Paulette Warner workshop, Tucson, AZ 2017-22 Pen and Ink, Athenaeum, La Jolla, CA 2008-11 Metalsmith Coursework, Pima Community College, Tucson AZ 2003-10 Drawing Studio, Abstract Painting, Tucson, AZ 1990-00 Graduate coursework in art, University of AZ and WNMU 1999 Paula Rice workshop, Tucson, AZ 1997 Frank Boydon workshop, Phoenix, AZ 1996 Akio Takamori, Phoenix, AZ 1996 Wayne Higby...
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