Painter exploring landscape, ecology, and displacement

Bringing together four artists, the exhibition explores landscape as a lens for ecological, social, and political instability. Through layered materials and hybrid terrains, the works reflect a fractured world shaped by environmental and cultural change. Opening: Sept 1st, 2026.
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Artists: Etty Yaniv, Alice Pixley Young, Bonny Leibowitz, Deborah Wasserman

 A two-person exhibition with Rotem Reshef exploring transformation, repair, and the relationship between humanity and the environment.

In dialogue with historical artifacts, the works bridge past and present, personal and collective memory, aligning with the Biennale’s theme De Profundis.

Curated by Sagi Rafael.

An invitation-only international residency convening a select group of artists for an intensive period of research, dialogue, and site-responsive practice.

Set within the rural landscape of Hampshire, the program fosters sustained critical exchange and the development of new work in close relation to place, material, and contemporary ecological and cultural concerns.

A site-specific exhibition featuring Skowhegan alumni and faculty exploring our evolving relationship to water in the Anthropocene.

Centered in Brooklyn’s Greenwood Heights and extending into Green-Wood Cemetery, the exhibition connects art, ecology, and local infrastructure—from stormwater systems to community-led bioswales.

“Overflow” positions artists as active agents in rethinking water as both a shared public resource and a critical site of environmental urgency.
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Thrilled to be included in Extreme Weather, curated by Tom Fitzgibbon, at 128 Rivington Street.
 
Artists include Matt Blackwell, Ben Cohen, Denise Corley, Bryan Corley, Carlo D'Ansemi, James Esber, Coleen Fitzgibbon, Stephen Lack, Jeffrey Morabito, Celeste Morton, Tom Otterness, Will Patterson, Cordy Ryman, Judith Simonian, Suzanne Unrein, Liam Van Horn, Deborah Wasserman, Yue Yuan, and Charles Yuen.

 
Opening: September 18, 6–8 PM
Location: 128 Rivington St., New York, NY
More info: icebox4.com

Excited to participate in Let Nature In, curated by Shazzi Thomas and Kathleen Beausoleil, at The Painting Center.
 
On view July 22–August 16, 2025, and featured on Artsy.
Opening: July 24, 5–8 PM.

Location: 547 W 27th St, Suite 500, New York, NY

Featured as a Studio Visit Artist on I Like Your Work Podcast, including an interview and video.

“My path has been nonlinear—moving through painting, multimedia, conceptual work, and performance before returning to painting.”

[Watch & read →]

Kuma Lisa Gallery presents This Bitter Earth, a solo exhibition by Deborah Wasserman, featuring large- and small-scale oil paintings and ink drawings. T

The work explores themes of climate crisis, migration, and the pursuit of belonging.
 
Opening Reception: April 11, 6–8 PM

Dates: April 11–May 4
Location: 56 Eldridge St, New York, NY
Hours: Thursday–Saturday, 1–6 PM, and by appointment

Four paintings by Deborah Wasserman were selected by New York Foundation for the Arts for A View from the Mountain Top, on view at 45 Rockefeller Plaza.
 
The exhibition features 30 works by eight NYFA-affiliated artists and is presented within the Rockefeller Management Group headquarters.

Dates: May–October 2023

Location: 45 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY

Work by Deborah Wasserman was featured with Plataforma ArtBase at Pinta Miami.
 
The presentation included small- and large-scale paintings exploring landscapes shaped by forests, fire, and water, reflecting themes of migration and shifting terrains.
 
Location: The Hangar, Coconut Grove
3385 Pan American Drive, Miami, FL
Booth: D-1

The Stoop is a public art project by Deborah Wasserman, developed in collaboration with the New York City Department of Transportation, Rockwell Group, and the 34th Avenue Open Streets Coalition.
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Located on 34th Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens, the structure functions as both a utilitarian object—supporting seating, storage, and staging—and a gathering place for the community. The design draws on the neighborhood’s tree-lined streets and red brick architecture, reflecting its seasonal and social rhythms.

[View project →]
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Location: 34th Avenue, Jackson Heights, Queens, NY
With support from: Arcana; The Horticultural Society of New York (maintenance)

Participating in Woodside Open Studios, a group event featuring eighteen artists across two studio buildings in Queens.

Date: June 12, 2022, 12–5 PM
 
Locations:

Mondo Studios — 33-55 55th St, 2nd Floor
Heptagon Studios — 33-46 55th St, 2nd Floor
Studio #22 (Heptagon Studios)

Showing a large-scale painting in Fragile Rainbow: Traversing Habitats, curated by Sue Spaid, at Williamsburg Art & Historical Center.

The exhibition brings together over fifty artists from ecoartspace, exploring environmental awareness and the relationship between humans and habitat.
 
“Ordinarily, human beings, especially urbanites, find it difficult to situate themselves as embedded in their habitat.”
 
Dates: May 7–June 4, 2022

Participating in Artists Speak for Trees, a Tree Talk moderated by Sant Khalsa, alongside Julia Adzuki, Nancy Azara, and Toni Gentili.

The conversation brings together artists working across performance, sculpture, and painting, addressing ecology, material practices, and relationships between human and nonhuman systems.
 
“Deborah Wasserman presented expressive paintings, drawings, and performances that explore themes surrounding Mother Nature, ecological threats, and the heroine’s quest.”

Participating in Embodied Forest, an online exhibition curated by Lilian Fraiji.
 
Accompanied by a comprehensive catalog, the exhibition brings together artists from ecoartspace, exploring interconnected ecologies, forest systems, and environmental consciousness.
 
“The show unfolds as a web—a forest of ideas and expressions of nature, growth, and decay.”

Featured in a conversation with Bernadine Franco on Beyond the Paint.

The discussion centers on migration, land, and the feminine body, reflecting on core ideas within the work.

[Listen →]

Participating in Breaking Through: 10 Contemporary Female Artists to Celebrate, an online exhibition presented by Catherine Fosnot Art Gallery on Artsy.
 
The exhibition features ten contemporary artists whose work engages themes of identity, community, and cultural influence.

Presenting work as part of the Queens Council on the Arts New Work Grant in a Zoom talk for Jackson Heights Art Talk, organized and moderated by Linda Ganjian.
 
[Listen →]

Selected works from the Plurabelle series are included in Contemporary Portraiture: Redefining the Figure, an online exhibition presented by Visionary Art Collective and curated by Erica B. Hess.
 
The exhibition brings together 24 artists exploring contemporary approaches to the figure.

Included in You Are Not Wonderful Just Because You Are a Mother, a juried exhibition presented by Artist/Mother Podcast and curated by Quiana Mestrich.

The exhibition title is drawn from a quote by Ishiuchi Miyako.

Dates: December 14, 2020 – February 14, 2021

Showing four artworks in a group exhibition at Catherine Fosnot Art Gallery and Center.

“This is a major exhibition of 26 artists recommended by New York City art critics as important artists to collect.”

Dates: November 14, 2020 – January 1, 2021

Named a finalist by the New York Foundation for the Arts in the category of Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts.

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Selected from a pool of nearly 4,000 applicants.

I'm delighted to be approached by Art Spiel, to share my thoughts and reflections about making art and being an artist in NYC, in the midst of quarantine. 

This year I have been awarded a Queens Council On The Arts 2020 New Work Grant. I proposed a solo exhibit titled Eulogy To Wander Woman, an installation of paintings, drawings, and photographs dedicated to women migrants, underlying the connection between climate change and migration.

Now for the fourth year, Su Casa grant for conducting a residency in a local senior center.  In 2019 I received a grant from the NYC Department Of Cultural Affairs to design and implement an art residency with seniors in Woodside, Queens. I absolutely enjoyed every aspect of my residency, especially introducing my students to abstract art inspired by the work of artists Hilma af Klint, and Beatriz Milhazes. 

Group show, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, No Dead Artists

I am so excited to participate in a show at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery. Apparently, only 16 artists were chosen from a group of 600 applicants. New Orleans is a stunning city and I was thrilled to attend the opening in person!

In his 2017 inaugural address, incoming CalArts president Ravi S. Rajan called on CalArtians everywhere to cherish their role as “Citizen Artists” who, in the words of the Institute’s founding provost Herbert Blau, are in a unique position to help “put the whole cracked world back together.” Beginning with this issue, The Pool will bring you the stories of alumni who exemplify this vision of Citizen Artists— graduates who have found a unique way to, as Rajan put it,
“steer us toward a better future.”

I thoroughly enjoyed organizing with Tal Dekel, from the Tel Aviv University, a panel with some impressive women scholars from Israeli Academia, in conjunction with my exhinbit Wander, Woman. In this panel, accompanied by a performance by dancer Shlomit Yaron, we spoke about women's labor, migration, art-making, identity, and representation. Participants: Prof. Zmira Poran, Prof. Tal Dekel, Prof. Sigal Barkai, artist Deborah Wasserman.

Wander, Woman
A solo exhibit by Deborah Wasserman, July 5-28, 2018
A mixed-media exhibition of drawing, collage & installation
Zaritsky Artists' House
9 Elkharizi St, Tel Aviv-Yaffo
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Currents at A.I.R. Gallery
CURRENTS: ABORTION
Curated by Barbara Zucker
JANUARY 5 - FEBRUARY 4, 2018
Opening Reception: Friday, January 5th from 6-8PM

Hospitality is a public intervention commissioned by RPGA studio with the theme of Dwelling. This intervention is a part of a larger event in which thirteen other artists will be exploring a similar idea throughout Queens.

Details:
Hospitality
Sep 23rd, 2017, 12-4:00PM
Roosevelt Ave, Jackson Heights, NY
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I'm thrilled to be a 2018 Puffin Foundation Grant recipient!
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In 2016 I was awarded a NYFA IAP: Social Practice Fellowship
IAP: Social Practice is a year-long professional development program for immigrant and 1st-generation artists working in all forms of socially engaged art (including, but not limited to, public and community engagement and advocacy around issues of environment and climate change, immigration, race, gender, and social justice). 

"...Watching performance artist Deborah Wasserman in action, you’d swear she had multiple personalities. Last Saturday at Corona Plaza, she channeled her inner nature goddess and became green Mother Earth/Queen of Trash, a long cape of garbage trailing behind her, as curious passers-by watched and wondered..." Please follow the link to read complete article.

Commissioned by Queens Art Intervention, I was fortunate to realize The longest journey begins with a single step project which utilizes 135 pairs of shoes worn by my two daughters since they were born. These shoes represent the voyage (in time and space) that my children are taking as well as my own passage as a mother, the witness who documents, accompanies and marvels in their journey.

I just completed my residency at Su Casa, with a grant from Queens Council On The Arts, NYC Department Of Cultural Affairs.  My residency focused on personal histories/family and community.  We created fifteen quilts with portraits and family trees of participating residents.  Loved working at Corona Senior Center.  I have met some magnificent individuals.  

In A Woman's Work Is Never Done, I will be sharing my perspective on being a woman/artist/homemaker and how it applies to labor/art/market. "... the very definition of art has been biased in that 'art' was what men did in European tradition and 'crafts' were what women and natives did. But it's actually all the same" —Gloria Steinem

I was thrilled to have been invited to SCAD for almost a week, to do a presentation and conduct two days of studio visits and crits with graduate students from the Fine Arts Department, Spring 2005.