Stephen Friedman Gallery announces the opening of 'What about us?', a solo exhibition by Austin-based artist Deborah Roberts.

This is Roberts' third exhibition with the gallery and her first in New York in over five years. Roberts is celebrated for depicting Black children and adolescents dressed in bright colors and patterns against white or black backgrounds. Her fragmented figures appear in mid movement as they gaze or beckon toward the viewer. Interweaving collage and painting, Roberts' multi-layered compositions offer a form of resistance as they explore the complexity of Black subjecthood in relation to race, identity, politics, and society.

Featuring some of the artist’s largest works to date, the show continues Roberts’ exploration of how systemic racism shapes the way Black children grow up in the world. The artist employs collage, a revolutionary medium used by artists since the early twentieth century, to reframe the inequities and prejudices of normative culture and to create alternative, more inclusive narratives. Composing works using found materials sourced from the internet, literature, and photographs, and juxtaposing these with hand-painted details, Roberts deconstructs stereotypes perpetuated by mainstream visual culture. Combining a range of skin tones, facial features, hairstyles, and clothing, she presents an expansive, multidimensional view of Blackness.

More information on the event can be found here.