Deborah Roberts: Twenty Years of Art/Work

Foreword by Dawoud Bey. Text by Carolyn Jean Martin, Ekow Eshun. Conversation with Sarah Elizabeth Lewis.

The definitive look at two decades of work by Austin-based artist Deborah Roberts (born 1962) with newly commissioned texts and a thorough dive into her archive, this monograph offers a comprehensive view of one of today’s most significant social observers. 

By using images from American history, Black culture, pop culture and Black history, Roberts critiques perceptions of ideal beauty and challenges stereotypes. She combines found and manipulated images with hand-drawn and painted details to create hybrid figures, often young girls and increasingly Black boys, whose well-being and futures are equally threatened because of the double standard of boyhood and criminality that is projected upon them at such a young age. Each child has character and agency to find their own way amid the complicated narratives of American, African American and art history.

Hardcover / 10.5 x 12.75 in. / 224 pgs / 80 color.