Frieze London

Stephen Friedman Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new paintings by African-American artist Deborah Roberts at Frieze London 2021. This coincides with the artist’s first institutional solo show in Europe at The Bluecoat, Liverpool from October 2021. This body of work continues Roberts’ investigation of the challenges encountered by Black children as they respond to social constructs perpetuated by the white gaze and western visual culture.

Working primarily in collage, Roberts critiques notions of beauty, the body, race and identity in contemporary society through the portrayal of young Black boys and girls. The artist assembles her images from fragments of found materials—such as photographs, literature, magazines and the Internet—juxtaposed with hand-painted details. Combining a range of different facial features, skin tones, hairstyles and clothes, she explains that “with collage, I can create a more expansive and inclusive view of the Black cultural experience.”

The artist currently has a solo exhibition and outdoor commission on display at The Contemporary Austin, Texas which will tour to MCA Denver, Colorado later this year.

Roberts was born in Austin, Texas, USA in 1962 where she continues to live and work. She was a finalist in the 2019 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and her work is currently on show in the accompanying exhibition ‘The Outwin 2019: American Portraiture Today', touring from the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. to Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri and Alaska State Museum, Juneau, Alaska (2019-2021). The Anonymous Was a Woman award was presented to Roberts in December 2018, a prize granted each year to ten female artists over the age of 40 in the USA and at a critical juncture in their career. She was a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Grant in 2016 and was an Artist in Residence at The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Florida in 2019.

Roberts' work is held in the collections of Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA; SFMOMA, San Francisco, California, USA; Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, USA; Scottish National Galleries, Edinburgh, UK/ American Patrons of the National Library and Galleries of Scotland; ICA Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, USA; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, USA; 21c Museum Hotels, Louisville, Kentucky, USA; The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Saratoga Springs, New York, USA; Block Museum of Art, Evanston, Illinois, USA; Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Miami, Florida, USA; LACMA, Los Angeles, California, USA; Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey, USA; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas, USA and Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, Ohio, USA.


About Stephen Friedman Gallery

Stephen Friedman Gallery represents exceptional emerging and mid-career artists from around the world. Since its inauguration in 1995, the gallery has been based in Mayfair on Old Burlington Street. The gallery now has three spaces in which it hosts solo and group exhibitions throughout the year. Additional works can be viewed by appointment in private rooms and office spaces. There is also a facility to exhibit outdoor sculpture in a landscaped private garden.