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Debra Ramsay

1957
(USA) AMERICAN

Debra Ramsay is an American abstract artist who creates acrylic paintings, drawings and installations that explore the conceptual interplay between color, line and surface. She lives and works in New York City.

Education

Ramsay graduated from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1984 then earned her BA from Brooklyn College in 1986. She also attended Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR, graduating in 1999. She's been awarded residencies with the Albers Foundation and The Golden Family Foundation, both in New York, and the BAU Institute in Otranto, Italy.

Technique

Ramsay's technique begins with an idea. From there she chooses the appropriate medium and method with which to realize her concept. Much of her work is painted with acrylic paint applied to polyester film, paper or museum board.

Ramsay's process engages a systematic, mathematical approach heavily influenced by color. She interacts with nature, documents the shifting colors of elements of the natural environment, such as landscapes, fruit, leaves and trees. Often, she returns to the same exact spot at different periods throughout the year, documenting the shifting colors over time.
Back in the studio, she then feeds the colors she documents into a computer program, analyzing them and using the analyses to mix paint.
The resulting work presents an abstraction of specific spaces or objects in time, informed by mathematics and explored through geometry and color.

Inspiration

Ramsay's work is informed by nature, the seasons, changing landscapes and the passing of time. She is inspired by systems, mathematics and geometry, and engaged in the practice of applying those fields of thought to the abstract interpretation of color, space and time. Her work is heavily influenced by a quote from the German-born, American abstract artist Josef Albers: "There is a profound harmony in the immeasurable spectrum of color."

Relevant quotes

In February of 2015, Carl Belz of the Left Bank Art Blog wrote about Debra Ramsay, saying:
“(Her) vertical clusters and horizontal stacks recall color field paintings from the 1960s by Gene Davis and Kenneth Noland. Debra Ramsay mentioned her…interest in creating an “ego-less” art… a radical ambition at a time when individual empowerment and expression are everywhere promoted in our culture…Against such excess Debra Ramsay sounds an alternative note in describing herself as a meditative agency, “a conduit for the arrangement of shape and the placement of color…”

Exhibitions

Ramsay's work has been extensively exhibited in numerous solo and group shows across the United States, as well as in Italy, Thailand and Germany. She has been written about and interviewed in the press.

Collections

Ramsay's work is included in numerous private, corporate and institutional collections, including those of Alliance Bernstein, New York and the Ritz Carlton, Dubai.

Galleries

Minus Space, Brooklyn, NY (flat files)
Odetta, Brooklyn, NY
TSA, Brooklyn, NY

Education

1999 Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
1986 B.A., Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY
1984 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY

Solo Exhibitions

2021 Where We Meet Ourselves, Yi Gallery, Industry City, Brooklyn, NY
2018 Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT
2016 HUE[S]PACE, Odetta, Brooklyn, NY
2016 LAND, AIR, PLACE, Project, NY, NY
2016 LANDSCAPE AS TIME, 57 W 57th Arts, NY, NY
2016 FICTION (WITH ONLY DAYLIGHT BETWEEN US), traveling: Dayton, OH; Heidelberg, Germany; Angelika Studios, High Wycombe, UK; Elgin Community College, Chicago, IL; ODETTA, Brooklyn, NY
2013 MAT/tam, Palazzo Costa, Mantova, Italy, curated by Lucio Pozzi
2012 DESIRE LINES, Blank Space Art, NY, NY
2009 BALANCING ACT, Blank Space, NY, NY
2008 BOUNDARY, eo Art Lab, Chester, CT
2007 OPENING TO PERCEPTION, Franklin 54, New York, NY

Group Exhibitions

2021 EMBODY, Ely Center of Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT
2021 (DE)CODING, Visual Arts Center of NJ, Summit, NJ
2020 LIMINAL SPACE, Karen Imperial Fine Art, Palo Alto, CA
2019 A CLEARING: NEW WORK BY SHARON BRANT & DEBRA RAMSAY, KeyProjects Art Space, Long Island City, NY
2018 BLACK BOX, Saarlandisches Künstlerhaus, Saarbrücken, DE
2018 EXQUISITE PALETTE, Tacit Galleries, Melbourne, AU
2018 REDUCTIVE NON OBJECTIVE, Philadelphia, PA
2017 CHROMOTOPIA, Tacit Galleries, Melbourne, AU
2017 EXTENDED PROCESS, Saturation Point Projects, Deptford, UK
2017 RE-INSTITUTE, Millerton, NY
2017 THREE SHELF REDDER, 325 Space, Ridgewood, Queens
2017 OPPLER, Transmitter, Brooklyn, NY
2016 LAND, AIR, SPACE, ProjectARTspace, NY, NY
2016 57 W 57th Arts, NY, NY
2015 VOLUME 2 BLACK & WHITE, Schema Projects, Brooklyn, NY
2015 ABSTRACTION, Art Garage, Cheshire, CT
2015 ALEX PAIK & DEBRA RAMSAY, Tiger Strikes Asteroid Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2015 TERRITORY OF ABSTRACTION, Pentimenti Gallery, PA
2015 MATERIAL ATTRACTION, NYIT School of Architecture and Design, New York, NY
2014 LANDSCAPE AS TIME, Hansel & Gretel Picture Garden/Pocket Utopia, NY, NY
2014 THE BRUCENNIAL, The Bruce High Quality Foundation, NY, NY
2014 MADE IN PAINT, Golden Foundation, New Berlin, NY
2014 DOPPLER SHIFT, Visual Arts Center of NJ, Summit, NJ
2013 SESSION ONE, Pocket Utopia Gallery, NY, NY, curated by Austin Thomas
2013 RITUALS OF EXHIBITION II, H Gallery, Chiang Mai, Thailand
2013 DOPPLER STOP, Parallel Art Space, Brooklyn, NY
2013 DUAL ZONES, Key Projects Art Space, New York, NY
2013 ANONYMOUS DRAWINGS 2013, Galerie Nord/Kunstverein Tiergarten, Berlin, Germany
2013 RITUALS OF EXHIBITION, Phayao, Thailand, curated by Giles Ryder and Gilbert Hsiao
2012 ENCAUSTIC WORKS BIENNIAL ’12, The Gallery at R & F, Kingston, NY
2012 TEMPORARY ART MANTO, curated/organized by Lucio Pozzi and Annarosa Buttarelli, Italy
2012 MAKING ROOM, Institute Library, New Haven, CT
2012 DOPPLER STOP, traveling group show: Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Berlin, Zagreb, Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery, Jackson Arts Center, Fall River, MA
2012 TEXTILITY, Visual Arts Center of NJ, Summit, NJ
2011 VISUAL PHRASING, Maloney Art Gallery, College of Saint Elizabeth, Morristown, NJ
2011 AN EXCHANGE WITH SOL LEWITT, Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA
2010 ILLUSIVE BALANCE: TRANSCENDENTAL PATTERN AND LAYERED SURFACE, Mabel Smith Douglass Library at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
2010 ENCAUSTIC INVITATIONAL, Westchester Community College Center for the Arts, White Plains, NY
2009 32nd SMALL WORKS, NYU Washington Square East Gallery, Daniel Ferris, Juror, NY
2009 IN THE MIDDLE, eo Art Lab, Chester, CT
2009 Metaphor Contemporary, Brooklyn, NY
2008 SMALL PACKAGES 14, Cumberland Gallery, Nashville, TN
2008 GROUP EXPERIMENT, eo Art Lab, Chester, CT
2008 CALCULATING ART: MATHEMATICS IN THE VISUAL FIELD, Maloney Gallery, College of St. Elizabeth, Morristown, NJ, Virginia Butera, PhD curator
2007 12 x 12, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2007 Cumberland Gallery, Nashville, TN
2007 MOSTLY WHITE, Franklin 54 Gallery, NY, NY
2007 FROM MINIMUM TO MAXIMUM, Lascano Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
2007 NATIONAL ENCAUSTIC CONFERENCE, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA
2007 2ND ANNUAL ENCAUSTIC INVITATIONAL, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2006 Lascano Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
2005 Incognito, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
2005 Franklin 54 Gallery, NY, NY
2005 Rochford & Messick Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2005 Haddad Lascano Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
2005 Guild Hall Members Exhibition, East Hampton, NY
2005 Sara Nightingale Gallery, Water Mill, NY
2005 Group Show, Hudson Opera House, Hudson, NY
2004 Haddad Lascano Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
2004 Looking In Looking Out, Paul Mellon Arts Center, Wallingford, CT
2004 Abstraction, Graphics Gallery, NY, NY
2002 Catcalls, NYC Urban Experience Museum, NY, NY
2000 George Waters Gallery, Elmira College, Elmira, NY
2000 Corvallis Arts Center, Corvallis, OR
1998 Sitka Invitational, Portland, OR
1998 Regional Invitational, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
1997 Landscape Invitational, Sunbird Gallery, Bend, OR
1996 16th Annual Northwest International, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA
1995 Of the Nature of Water, Corvallis Arts Center, Corvallis, OR
1994 All Oregon Art Annual, Oregon State Fair, Salem, OR
1994 Love and the Body Politic, Women’s Caucus for Art, Beaverton, OR
1993 Celebrating the Instinctual Self, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
1993 Issues of Color and Gender, Tarleton State University, Stephenville, TX
1992 Depth and Diversity in Recent American Art, Bemus Point, NY
1992 Newport Visual Arts Center, Newport, OR

Residencies

2016 Albers Foundation Residency, Bethany, CT
2013 Golden Family Foundation, New Berlin, NY
2012 BAU Institute, Otranto, Italy

Selected Collections

Golden Foundation, New Berlin, NY
Ritz-Carlton, Dubai
Alliance Bernstein, New York, NY
Queens Hospital Center, Queens, NY
9/11 Memorial Museum, New York, NY

Bibliography

Interview by Valerie Brennan, Studio Critical (Blog), December 16, 2013
Painters' Table (Blog), December 2013
Gopnik, Blake. Daily Beast, Daily Pic, Hudson River School, 2.0 (Blog), October 3, 2013
Behnke, Paul. Structure and Imagery: A Subtle Marking of Time and Distance (Blog), September 15, 2013
Encaustic Works ’12, A Biennial Exhibition in Print, Gallery at R&F, Kingston, New York, 2012
Textility, Visual Art Center of New Jersey, Summit, NJ, 2012
Orepuk, Roland. Art Built Reductive (Blog), November 6, 2010
Mattera, Joanne. Coincidentally: Ramsay and Mann (Blog), October 28, 2009
R&F Handmade Paints Artist of the Month, RFPaints Blog, December 1, 2009
Debra Ramsay’s Art Influences, Lisa Pressman’s Art Blog, November 14, 2009
Coincidentally: Ramsay and Mann, Joanne Mattera Art Blog, October 28, 2009
Ed McCormack, Gallery & Studio Magazine, February/March 2007
Calyx, A Journal of Art and Literature by Women, Vol. 22, No. 3, Summer 2005
‘The Hand as Icon,’ Newport News-Times, June 1999
Donna Tennant, Best of the West, Ancient Connections, Southwest Art, September 1997
Donna Tennant, Best of the West, Cutting-Edge Landscapes, Southwest Art, August 1997
Kathleen Alaks, Wiseman Broadens 1st Friday with Three Abstractionist’s Work, Daily Courier, November 1995
Kevin Francis, Deb Ramsay: “Elements of Life - Water,” Willamette Week, September 1995

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