Deborah Simon
United States
1 Works exhibited on Kooness
Represented by
The CAMP Gallery
, North Miami Beach, Fl -
US
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Works by Deborah Simon
Over the past few years, my work has focused on two of the most anthropomorphized animals in our culture, bears and rabbits. The sculptures of these animals become inverted anatomies showing their interior organ structures embroidered on the body’s surface or through translucent skin. The animals are an unnervingly accurate but uncanny version of the natural animal, curious about the viewer but not overtly welcoming. Fragile and vulnerable, the sculptures examine our attitudes, perceptions, and cultural concepts against the reality of the animal, expressing the wild and the tame, the beautiful and grotesque.
Bears interest me as the ultimate stuffed animals: both the iconic plush toy and the prized taxidermy specimen for hunters. A stuffed bear is the enduring toy of childhood; the fierce predator declawed and defanged to become a child’s best friend and sense of security. While bears and rabbit start as beloved childhood friends, our attitudes towards them quickly diverge. Bears, both revered and feared, are treated with far more respect. Our treatment of rabbits is more complex with attitudes ranging from adoration of their cuteness to contempt. Rabbits are animals that everyone has encountered, starting with Peter Rabbit and Bugs Bunny. They evolve from childhood toy to pampered pet, garden pest, science experiment, dinner and clothing.
Embroidered into the skins of the animals is my interest in evolution, biology and cosmology. I am fascinated by how the universe organizes itself into the same structures from the microscopic to the cosmological. The embroidery and beading on the animal’s skin pulls both of these worlds into opposite directions. The cells of the lungs become visible as the lung and the Milky Way is beaded onto the body making a small universe of the rabbit.
Many people assume my sculptures are created from taxidermy. They are not. I make everything by hand, starting with painted sketches and sculpted maquettes. I embroider samples to figure out the linen and fur colors, thread and stitch directions. I then sculpt the body, make the fabric pattern, and sew the linen and fur together. I hand embroider the organ systems onto the linen. The head and paws are then sculpted and the fur carefully glued on. All the parts assembled and permanently attached. The finished object is important to me; like the stuffed toys that are the first objects we treasure, the sculptures become beings completely contained within themselves.
Education:
School of Visual Arts, MFA, New York, NY, 1996 – 1998
San Francisco Art Institute, BFA Sculpture, San Francisco, CA, 1988 – 1992
Repin Institute of Art, St. Petersburg, Russia, 1991
Solo Exhibitions:
2023: White Rabbit, AHA fine art, New York, NY
Embroidered Morphologies, International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago, IL
2018: Evolution: Ursus americanus, Textile Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY
2014: Solo Show, Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute, Utica NY
2013: Taxonomy, Packer Schopf, Chicago, IL
2011: LZ Project Space, New York, NY
2009: Roost, Packer Schopf Gallery, Chicago, IL
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2024: Among Friends, Metaphor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2023: South Brooklyn Salon, Thomas VanDyke Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Art on Paper, AHA Fine Art, New York, NY
Lagomorphs: Rabbits and Hares in Contemporary Craft, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA
2022: Among Friends, Equity Gallery, New York, NY
Seattle Art Fair, Marloe Gallery, Seattle, WA
2021: Secret of the Friendly Woods, Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY
Viva La Memento Mori: A reminder of life and mortality, AHA Fine Arts, Brooklyn, NY
2020: Foley Windows October through December 2020, Group Show, Foley Gallery, New York, NY
2019: Hey Look Us Over!, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL
Bear/Bare With Me: Altered States, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL
2018: Art Miami, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL
Unnatural Selection, Plaxall Gallery, Queens, NY
Neo-Victorians, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
Outbreak, National Museum of Natural History, The Smithsonian, Washington DC
2017: Art Miami, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL
Dark and Stormy Night, Lehman College, Bronx, NY
Governor’s Island Art Fair, New York, NY
Art Aspen, Aspen, CO
Portal Art Fair, New York, NY
2016: The Hunt-The Prey-The Spirit, Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City, IN
Appetite for Destruction, Wassaic, NY
Resurrection!, Aron Packer Projects, Chicago, IL
The Animals, Paper City Studios, Holyoke, MA
Bird in Hand, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto, CA
Methods of Collecting, Esther Klein Gallery, University City Science Center, Philadelphia, PA
2015: HEY! modern art & pop culture ACT III, La Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France
Art from the Boros III, Denise Bibro Fine Arts, New York, NY
What Does Art Add, City Without Walls, Newark, NJ
HOME, Distillery Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
2014: Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Program Open Studios, Brooklyn, NY
The Meek Shall Inherit, UMass Amherst, Amherst, MA
HOME, Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Appolonian/Dionyssian : the restraints of freedom, Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, PA
2013: Context/Art Miami, Packer Schopf Gallery, Miami, FL
ANIMATOPOÆA: A MOST PECULIAR (POST MODERN) BESTIARY, Galleries at Cleveland State University, OH
2012: Creature, Gallery Project, Ann Arbor, MI
BoxoFFICE Projects, New York, NY
2011: Governors Island Art Fair, New York, NY
A Live Animal, Root Division, San Francisco, CA
2010: Animal Instinct, Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI
Creatures Great and Small, Yeiser Art Center, Paducah, KY
Coyote Pursues performed at Labapalooza!, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn, NY
SPECULATION(ELATION)3: VISIONS OF LIFE, LAND AND LETTERS, Parson’s Hall Project Space, Holyoke, MA
2009: D.U.M.B.O. Art Under the Bridge Festival, Brooklyn, NY
Once Upon a Time and Now, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL
Creatures Great and Small, Eagle Art Gallery, Murray, KY
Seaworthy for Spring 09, Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2008: Wild Life/Wildlife, Mt. Ida Gallery, Newton, MA
Studio Visit, Open Studio Press
Focus on Nature XI, New York State Museum, Albany, NY
2007: Punchbowl, Metaphor Contemporary Art, New York, NY
Salad Bar, Magnolia Earth Center, Brooklyn, NY
2006: Mad Cow: Absurdity and Anxiety in Contemporary Culture, NURTUREart, NY
Neubees, The Rider Project, New York, NY
2005: Animal Tales, DFN Gallery, New York, NY
2004: Conceptual Realism, The Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Affordable Art Fair, Frey Norris Gallery, New York, NY
Frey Norris Gallery, San Francisco, CA
IV Centuries of Birds, Clarke Galleries, New York, NY
New American Paintings, Northeast Competition
Focus on Nature VIII, New York State Museum, Albany, NY
2003: REMIX, Metaphor Contemporary Art, New York, NY
2002: Paper 2003, Metaphor Contemporary Art, New York, NY
The Art of Oil, The Lowe Gallery, New York, NY
20/02, The Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Small Works, 80 Washington Square East, New York, NY
2001: augustArt 2001, Rawspace, New York, NY
2000: Wunderkammer: Wonderworks, The Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
New Jersey Center for Visual Arts International Juried Show, New Jersey Center for
Visual Arts, Summit, NJ
1999: The Passion/Passions of Art, Richard Anderson, New York, NY
1998: Small Works, 80 Washington Square East, New York, NY
Thesis Show, SVA Visual Arts Gallery, New York, NY
Group Show, Westside Gallery, New York, NY
Lectures and Teaching Positions:
5 Max, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY 2020
5 Max Part 2, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY 2020
Mohawk Valley Community College, 2011, 2013
RUSH visiting teaching artist October 2008 - present
Marymount College, lecture October 2008
Opossum lecture for Fritz Haeg’s Animal Estates, Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, 2008
Residencies:
Chulitna Lodge Wilderness Retreat Creative Residency, Fellowship, 2022
Wassaic Project, Silkscreen residency, 2021
Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Program, 2013-2014
Sculpture Space, 2013
Sculpture Space, 2011
Vermont Studio Center, January 2003
Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation Grant, 2022
Nomination for Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, 2016
Cultural Space Subsidy Award, 2015-2017
Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, 2003
Partial Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center, 2003
Honorable Mention, New Jersey Center for Visual Arts International Juried Show,
Dan Cameron, juror, 2000
Jurors Award, Small Works, Ealan Wingate, juror, 1998
Merit Scholarships, School of Visual Arts, 1996, 1997
John and Earlene Taylor Scholarship for Figurative Sculpture, 1991
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