, Roberts’s interrogations of Black bodies—how they’re seen, and when prejudice diminishes them—have a new urgency. Her figures loom larger in the frame than they used to, claiming more space for themselves. And if Roberts can’t easily explain that shift, what sheknow is that it’s working. “I’ve always allowed the work to lead me,” she tells me. “It’s not always been down the right path, but it’s been an exercise, you know? And the work is getting better as it gets larger.
The collage work started slowly at Syracuse—until then, Roberts had primarily been a painter, working in a Norman Rockwell–inspired vernacular that she’d termed “Black Romantic”—and then in earnest when she returned to Austin, where she was born, raised, and still keeps her studio. A passage from Cornel West about the Black body helped to shape her approach. “I had that moment where I was like, ‘This is it. This is what I’ve been missing,’” says Roberts.
Artwork © Deborah Roberts. Courtesy the artist; Vielmetter Los Angeles; and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. Image courtesy The Contemporary Austin. Photograph by Paul Bardagjy. “At the base of everything that I’m trying to say is that we’re starting off with an innocent kid,” Roberts explains, “and I’m dealing with what society has drawn on.”Artwork © Deborah Roberts. Courtesy the artist; Vielmetter Los Angeles; and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. Image courtesy The Contemporary Austin. Photograph by Paul Bardagjy.
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