McKenzie Fine Art

55 Orchard Street, New York, New York 10002 212 989 5467

	Deborah Zlotsky: The light gets in September 5 - October 12, 2025
	view exhibition	Deborah Zlotsky’s striking new paintings feature vibrant, energetic stripes contained within interlocking rectangular forms of various sizes. Flatness and dimensionality compete throughout the canvases; in some, stripes turn sharply, creating an illusion of mitered corners. In others, abutting stripes of different widths produce syncopated rhythms. The nested compositions appear sturdy at first glance, but Zlotsky plays against this geometric regularity with layered visual disruptions. Odd angles, blurred passages, implied shadows, and even small dangling trompe l’oeil strings add to the sense of an illusionistic space that is in flux, both expanding and collapsing. For Zlotsky, abstraction mirrors the complicated way history interacts with the present. For example, stripes can connote a timeless aesthetic and graceful simplicity, but have also been used in Western imagery to warn of danger or to stigmatize marginalized groups. Zlotsky adds to the overlap of historical meaning and technique in her paintings by overlaying a patina of drips, rubs, and stray marks that speak of accumulation, wear, and the passage of time. Zlotsky writes of her work: “Part of learning about history is recognizing its difficulties, its immensity, one’s unavoidable inheritances, and the grief of lapses in awareness and understanding. Painting allows me to make spaces that are both visual and psychological. Bringing together hard edges and softness, flatness and illusion, and repetitions and incongruities open up ways to also make space for beauty and humor.” Zlotsky is also showing new work in the exhibition Genealogies at Markel Fine Arts, NY, from September 4–October 11, with a reception from 6-8 on September 11. The artist earned a B.A. in the History of Art from Yale University and an M.F.A. in Painting and Drawing from the University of Connecticut. She has exhibited her work in solo and group gallery and museum shows throughout the United States for over twenty years. Zlotsky has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation (2019) and NYFA (2012 and 2018) and residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell, and the Bogliasco Foundation, among many others. Her work is held in numerous public and institutional collections, including the Albany Institute of History and Art in New York, the William Benton Museum of Art, CT, the Frances Tang Teaching Museum, NY, the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, and the Borusan Collection, Istanbul. Zlotsky is Professor of Experimental and Foundational Studies at the Rhode Island School of Design.

55 Orchard Street, New York, New York 10002 212 989 5467
email info@mckenziefineart.com