Deborah Zlotsky “Now and later”

Kathryn Markel Fine Arts

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Kathryn Markel Fine Arts presents Now and later, an exhibition of new work by Deborah Zlotsky. The show marks the artist’s fourth solo show with the gallery, and the first since she was awarded a 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Zlotsky’s abstract paintings are at once vivid and hard to categorize. They reference 1960s psychedelia and the graphic boldness of Pop painting, and pay homage to Surrealist and Rennaisance traditions through playful trompe l’oiel disruptions. Her use of color, shape, form, and perspectival shifts create vibrant paintings that are both timeless and contemporary.

The title Now and later refers to what Zlotsky calls the logical illogic of decision-making that over time leads to unforeseen results. She “connects visual fragments, accumulating and connecting parts that don’t necessarily go together. A lopsided system eventually develops in each work that refers more broadly to the way systems might evolve through the accumulation of actions and reactions—in the way complexities of power are built over time through accidents that get baked in.” The drips, abrasions, and stains reveal the months, and sometimes years, the process takes.

Now and later also marks the first public exhibition of Zlotsky’s explorations of vintage scarves from the 1960s and 1970s, which embody their aging, wear, and the passage of time. She creates her scarf tapestries through a process of combining and connecting that, similar to her painting, contain surprising synchronicities.

“I was born in 1962, and the scarves’ colors, patterns, and gossamer movements connect to the lush visual world of my earliest awareness,” Zlotsky said. “Their graphic groove and elegance reflect strategies of abstraction in the art world of the ‘60s and ‘70s. They also refer to complicated ideas about femininity that shaped me, especially contradictory notions of restraint and display, as scarves both conceal the body and announce the wearer’s desire to be seen.”

Zlotsky is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow. She is represented by Kathryn Markel Fine Arts in New York and Robischon Gallery in Denver. Her drawings are in the curated flat files of Pierogi in New York. In 2012 and 2018, she received New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowships in Painting. Her work has been included in exhibitions at Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA; McKenzie Fine Art, NY; Pierogi Gallery, NY; Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, CA; the Studio Art Center International Gallery (SACI), Florence, Italy; and the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, among others. Zlotsky’s work is in numerous public and private collections. Recent residencies include Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Saltonstall Foundation, and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. Zlotsky has a BA in the History of Art from Yale University and an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Connecticut. She lives in Delmar, NY and teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI where she is an Associate Professor of Experimental and Foundation Studies.