I (Lisa) had the pleasure of seeing Debra Baxter's work in person at the Ghost Heart exhibit Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle, WA. My friends and I couldn't stop talking about her work, particularly her impressive anatomical heart sculptures featuring glistening crystals. I told Alexa we had to reach out to have her on the blog!
Debra Baxter is a sculptor and jewelry designer who combines
carved alabaster with crystals, minerals, metals, and found objects, exploring
notions of power, vulnerability, empowerment, success, and failure.
She received her MFA
in Sculpture from Bard College in 2008 and her BFA from the Minneapolis College
of Art and Design in 1996, in addition to studying at Academia di Belle Arti in
Florence, Italy. Debra has received an Artist Trust Individual Artist Grant,
three 4Culture Individual Project Grants in Seattle, Washington, and was recently nominated for a Louis
Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award as well as a Joan Mitchell Award.
Her work has been featured in Zoo Magazine (Germany), Edelweise Magazine (Switzerland), Zink, art ltd., Design Bureau, and Sculpture, Seattle Magazine, as well as hundreds of blogs all over the world. She has shown in solo and group exhibits throughout the United States. Baxter’s wearable sculpture piece Devil Horns Crystal Brass Knuckles (Lefty) is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian and is in the re-installation of the Renwick Gallery’s Permanent Collection.
Her work has been featured in Zoo Magazine (Germany), Edelweise Magazine (Switzerland), Zink, art ltd., Design Bureau, and Sculpture, Seattle Magazine, as well as hundreds of blogs all over the world. She has shown in solo and group exhibits throughout the United States. Baxter’s wearable sculpture piece Devil Horns Crystal Brass Knuckles (Lefty) is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian and is in the re-installation of the Renwick Gallery’s Permanent Collection.
Baxter has created two artist’s books: Wanting
is Easier than Having, and 100 Days of Sculpture, both published by
Publication Studio in Portland Oregon.
We are
fascinated by the juxtaposition in form and subject matter of Debra’s work. Debra
has some thoughtful insights to her creations:
A feminist discourse informs
the objects I make. Supporting women is one of the most important aspects of my
life inside and outside the studio. I am interested in power and empowerment,
in finding strength in uncomfortable moments, and in addressing the dichotomy
of simultaneous success and failure. Power and vulnerability seem to be at
opposite ends of a spectrum, but power cannot exist without being vulnerable.
I am interested in the body in
both “high” and “low” terms. For me, the lushness of the Baroque period and the
gaudy extravagance of hip-hop are not far apart. I am drawn to the grand history
of the figure in stone, and I find myself making an abject tongue that is
strangely beautiful. My work often calls the body to action. I distinguish
between anatomical study and the representation of the body as a metaphor of
the self: my sculptures address the body as a vehicle of constraint and allow
for its phenomenological potential.
Find her work
online at www.debrabaxter.com and on
Instagram @debrabaxterstudio
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