Into the Wild: To Crash is Divine
Deborah Buck
La MaMa Galleria, New York, NY September 28 - October 27, 2023
Curated by Jennifer Baahng
Into The Wild presents the pathbreaking, allegorical works of protean painter and ardent colorist Deborah Buck. It is a focused solo exhibition showcasing nearly two dozen recent works. An exploration into contemporary concerns, the works are incarnations of Buck’s inquiries on social attitudes, culture and blasphemy, and emotional freedom at once personal and universal. Elegant and polemical, the art included in Into The Wild attests to Deborah Buck’s arrival at a distinctive narrative filled with fantastically Fauvistic personas and cautionary tales. Colliding secular with the sacred, the exhibition hints at essential codes that unravel the icons and slogans of our time; protest and provoke. Into The Wild invites a raw and fresh conversation with playful aesthetics, humor, and imprudence. It is a baroque fantasy fortress that upholds active pursuit and the joy of queueing.
Born in Mount Holly, New Jersey, Deborah Buck grew up on a farm. While her father’s dominant voice punctuated her youth, the home provided a fertile environment for creative exploration, which led to the distinctively unique, sculpted, archetypical visual motifs later in her art. In 1975, she attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, where, at age 18, she was mentored by Abstract Expressionist Clyfford Still, who told her: “Nobody can teach you to paint – you already know how. But to be taken seriously, you should learn everything about the world around you – religion, politics, design, science.” She moved to New York City in 1990 and joined the wave of female artists who gained prominence in New York in the 90s.
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