Bio

Deborah Dancy is a multi-media artist, whose work includes paintings, drawings, photography, and small sculptures.

She is the recipient of numerous awards including: A John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Yaddo Fellow, The American Antiquarian Society William Randolph Hearst Artist and Writers Creative Arts Fellowship, and The National Endowment of the Arts NEFA award. Her work is included in various collections including: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The High Museum, Atlanta, The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO, 21C Museum, The Baltimore Museum ,The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Birmingham Museum of Art, The Hunter Museum, The Detroit Institute of Art, The Boston Museum of Fine, The Montgomery Museum of Art, The Spencer Museum of Art, The Hunter Museum of Art, Vanderbilt University, Grinnell College, Oberlin College Museum of Art, Davidson Art Center, Wesleyan University, and The United States Embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe.

She is represented by Kathryn Markel Fine Arts NYC, Robischon Gallery, Denver and Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta.

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Deborah Dancy

www.deborahdancy.com

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AWARDS AND HONORS

2021 Goetemann Residency Distinguished Artist and Teacher, Gloucester, MA

2007 Banff Creative­ Residency Program Grant

2006 Women's Studio Workshop Residency Grant

University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts Outstanding Faculty Award

2005 Center for Contemporary Printmaking Residency Fellowship

2002 The University of Connecticut Chancellor’s Research Fellowship

William Randolph Hearst Artist and Writers Creative Arts Fellowship,

American Antiquarian Society

2001 Nexus Press Artist Book Project Residency Award

Visual Studies Press Artist in Residence Award

Louise Comfort Tiffany Foundation Nominee

1997 The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship

1996 New England Foundation for the Arts Regional National Endowment for the Arts,

Individual Artist Grant

Joan Mitchell Foundation Nominee

Juror's Merit Award, New American Talent: Laguna Gloria Museum

1995 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Fellowship Nominee

1991 Connecticut Commission on the Arts Individual Artist Grant

1988 Yale University Visiting Faculty Fellow

1985 YADDO Fellow Artist-In-Residence

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024 And All is Always Now, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York, NY

2022 Body of Evidence, Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta, GA

A Glitch in the Membrane, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York, NY

Circling Time, Zillman Art Museum, University of Maine, Bangor MA

2021 A Faint Light, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO

2020 Collision, Marketview Gallery, York College of PA, York PA

2019 The Weight of the World, Five Points Gallery, Torrington, CT

The Edge of Time, Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta, GA

2018 Un/Natural Occurrence, Gray Contemporary Gallery, Houston TX

Turbulence, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO

Counter Clockwise, K. Imperial Fine Art, San Francisco, CA

2016 Pernicious Beauty, K. Imperial Fine Art, San Francisco, CA

2015 Lush Life N’Namdi, Contemporary Miami, Miami, FL

2013 Chasing the Light - Sears Peyton Gallery, New York, NY

2012 SACI Gallery Florence, Italy

2009 G.R.N’Namdi Gallery, Chicago, IL

2007 Stewart Gallery, Purdue University

Wright State University, West Layfette, IN

2005 Sears Peyton Gallery, New York, NY

2004 G.R.N’Namdi Gallery, Detroit, MI

2001 G.R.N’Namdi Gallery, Chicago, IL

1999 ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL

1999 Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport, CT

1998 Diggs Gallery, Winston-­Salem, NC

1997 The College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023 The Thin Film of Living, Private Public Gallery, Hudson New York

45 + Anniversary Exhibition, Part 1 and Part 2, Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO

Artists Talking, Conversations in Paper and Paint, Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta, GA

A Boat Made Out of Ocean, M.David & Co. Brooklyn, NY

2022 GAA Gallery; A Celebration. Provincetown, MA

Confuse the Issues: Art, Text and Identity, Schmucker Gallery,Gettysburg College,

Gettysburg, PA

Double Consciousness. Deborah Dancy and Karen Revis, Mueller Gallery

Caldwell University

Caldwell, NJ

Artists and Language. Suffolk University, Boston, MA

Castle Hill 50th Anniversary GAA Gallery, Provincetown, MA

A Call to Question, Cooley Gallery, Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA

Stolen Goods, Marketview Art Gallery, York College, York PA

Female Abstractionists, Melissa Morgan Fine Art, Palm Desert, CA

2021 Odd Couple, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, NYC

ONCE IN A LIFETIME, M.DAVID & CO. Brooklyn

Summer Show, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, NYC

Deborah Dancy- Deborah Zlotsky, Kathryn Markel Bridgehampton, NY

2020 MATTER, Gray Contemporary, Houston, TX

Founding Narratives, Mead Museum of Art, Amherst, MA

2019 Selfish, K.Imperial Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2018 State of Abstraction, Washington Art Association & Gallery, Washington Depot, CT

Parallel Practices, The Visual and Performing Arts Center, Western CT State University, Danbury, CT

MONSTERS -Among/Within, Hans Weiss NewSpace Gallery, Manchester Community College, Manchester CT

Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction 1960’s to Today, Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg, FL

2017 Decades of Change, Art Space, New Haven, CT

Stacked, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, NYC

Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction 1960’s to Today, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Kansas City, MO

Magnetic Fields, Expanding American Abstraction 1960’s to Today, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC

2016 Surface Work, Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT, curated by David Borawski

The Tide Is High, Governors Island NY

2015 Interwoven, Mead Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, MA

2014 Art in the Embassies, American Embassy, Paris, France

ART FUSION/ Art Basel. N'Namdi, Miami, FL

Window Seat N’Namdi, Miami, FL

2013 Abstraction, N'Namdi Contemporary, Miami, FL

2012 Float- Sears Peyton Gallery, NY, NY

Hidden Essence G.R.N’Namdi Gallery Chicago, IL

N’Namdi Contemporary Miami, FL

2008 Connecticut Biennale Mattatuck Museum, Bridgeport, CT

Contemporary Printmaking. The Rye Text Messages: Words and Letters Arts Center Rye, NY

Abstraction Updated, G.A.S.P Gallery, Brookline, MA

More Than One: Prints and Multiples, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

Stories and Histories. Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA

2004 Conflicting Memories, Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS

2002 The Belles of Amherst: Contemporary Women Artists in the Collection

Mead Art Museum, Amherst, MA

Words of Vision/Vision of Words CT Commission on the Arts, Hartford, CT

2000 Revisiting Abstraction, LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM

1996 The Eighth Triennial, Fuller Museum of Art, Brockton, MA

Translucency, Mary Porter Sesnon Gallery, University of CA., Santa Cruz, CA

1995 New American Talent, Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi

Alabama Impact: Contemporary Artists with Alabama Ties, Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL, and The Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL

1991 9 Artists/9 Visions: DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA

PERMANENT COLLECTIONS

The High Museum, Atlanta, GA

21C Museum

The Museum of the Fine Arts, Houston, TX

The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

United States Embassy, Yaoundé, Cameroon, West Africa

Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL

Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN

Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI

Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell, University, Bucknell, PA

Allen Memorial Museum of Art, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH

Fine Art Museum Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC

Hallmark Cards, Inc. Kansas City, MO

Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN

Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

Figge Museum of Art, Davenport, IA Cedar

Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT

Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA

Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD

Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC

Vanderbilt University Museum, Nashville, TN

Montgomery Museum of Art, Montgomery, AL

Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA

Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, MA

Caesars Palace Hotel, Las Vegas, NV

Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, NV.

General Electric Company, Fairfield, CT

Chemical Bank, New York, NY Pepsi Co, Ryebrook, NY

Meditech Corporation, Cambridge, MA

Southern New England Telephone, New Haven, CT

Aetna Life Insurance Company, Middletown, CT

Salmon River Corporation, Glastonbury, CT

Culbro Land Resources, Windsor, CT

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND REVIEWS

ROOM, A Sketchbook for Analytic Action 6.22

ArtsATL. Multifacted Black artist Deborah Dancy delivers powerful sucker punch.

Catherine Fox May 9, 2022

Burnaway. Body of Evidence, June 29, 2022, Noah Reyes

DARIA ART MAGAZINE, 2021, Deborah Dancy, A Faint Light- Emily Zeek

Art New England, The Weight of the World, Jacquelyn Gleisner. Five Points Gallery

The Paris Review, June 22, 2017, The Bookness of Not-Books, Albert Mobilio

ARTPULSE Magazine Vol. 7 2015, Deborah Dancy: Between Abstraction and Representation, Jeff Edwards

The Drawing Center, Emmie Danza ,June 26, 2013, Deborah Dancy, Chasing the Light, SearsPeyton Gallery

The Willimantic Chronicle, Terese Karmel, November 2008, A Convergence of Art and Music

Art New England, Cynthia Farnell, October/November 2005, Speaking Volumes Univ. RI

Hartford Advocate, Patricia Rosoff, July 15, 2004, Small Vistas, The 10-Year Show at 100 Pearl

Hartford Advocate, Patricia Rosoff, July 5,2004, Finding One’s Self

Holleley, Douglas. Digital Book, Design and Publishing, Cary Graphic Arts Press, Rochester Institute of Technology, 2000

Connecticut Review, Fall 2000, The Practical Speller

Art New England, June/July 2000, Pat Rosoff, Abstraction, Central Connecticut State University

Art New England, October/November 1997, Lois Tarlow, Deborah Muirhead's Ghostly Vision

Hartford Advocate, October 9, 1997, Patricia Rosoff, Variety is the Spice of Life

Art New England, Joyce Chen, February/March 1997, Fuller Museum of Art

ArtsMedia, Jeff Perrott, January/February 1997, The Eighth Triennial Exhibition

Art New England, Francois Hugot, June/July 1996, Lenore Gray Gallery, Muirhead, Reddicliffe: Paintings

Time Capsule: A Concise Encyclopedia By Women Artists, S.O.S International, edited by Robin Kahn, NY

Art New England, Michael Rush, April/May 1996, Connecticut Invitational

The New York Times, William Zimmer, April 28, 1996

Gumbo Ya Ya: Anthology of Contemporary African American Women Artists, 1995, Midmarch Publication, NY

Art New England, Michael Rush, August/September 1995, 3 Connecticut Artists Transform the Ordinary

The New York Times, William Zimmer, April 16, 1995, Three in Search of the Spiritual

The Art of Seeing, 3rd Edition, 1993 Mary Pat Fisher, Paul Zelanski, Calmann & King Limited, London

The Hartford Courant, Owen McNally, Painter Muirhead Peers Through A History, Darkly

Color, 1994, Mary Pat Fisher, Paul Zelanski, Calmann & King Limited, London

Hartford Advocate, September 24,1992, Susan Wadsworth, Hooked: Deborah Muirhead at Trinity

The Boston Globe, Friday, June 28, 1991, Christine Temin, DeCordova has 9 Artists

The New York Times, Sunday, April 14, 1991, William Zimmer, Connecticut Biennial

Art New England, February 1991, Susan Wadsworth, Spirit Calls

The New York Times, Sunday, May 2,1989, Vivian Raynor, Stamford Museum

Art New England, May 1989, Jude Schwendenwein, Spirit in the Wood/Paint

The New York Times, Sunday, February 26,1989, Vivian Raynor, Spirit in the Wood/Paint

Art News, Summer 1988, David Bonetti, Boston: A Baker's Dozen

The Boston Globe, Thursday March 31,1988, Christina Temin, Deborah Muirhead Solo Exhibit Liz Harris Gallery

A Tarde, Bahia, Brazil June 8,1987, Artista Americana Estuda as Manifestacoes Baianas

New Britain Herald Review, December 1987, Dorothy Spears, Connecticut Now Abstract Painting

Hartford Courant, December 1987, Matt Damsker, Three Artists Open the Gap Between Mystery and Reality

The New York Times, Sunday August 10,1986, William Zimmer, The Aetna Collection

GALLERY REPRESENTATION

Kathryn Markel Fine Arts NY

Robischon Gallery Denver, CO

Marcia Wood Gallery Atlanta, GA

Statement

I like to deal with fragments. Because no matter what the thought would be if it were fully worked out, it wouldn’t be as good as the suggestion of a thought that the space gives you. Nothing fully worked out could be so arresting, spooky.
— Anne Carson


 My work is an investigation of abstraction’s capacity to engage beauty and tension without justification or narrative. In my paintings and works on paper, I do not specify references; meaning is organic since images mingle, shift, and position themselves within a field of agitated or flat color. Within these works, inspiration springs from diverse sources sponsored, in part, from the views of gnarled and jagged trees and bark from the woodlands surrounding my home, discarded shards of construction debris, and constant encounters with the internal and external world. In this odd combination of elements, the initial mark prompts the starting point. Hesitation and agitation of brush strokes within the gesture reveals content. Incompleteness- the unfinished fragment of what - “almost was” and “might become” amplifies meaning. In this orbit, painting explores what I consider as embracing the unpredictable and accidental. Accepting this means I suspend assumptions and allow discoveries to emerge. This edge of conflict and sequence of processes, including scraping and repainting, fresh forms, and constructed imagery, becomes the elemental act of painting.