Deborah E. Roberts

The FLAG Art Foundation is pleased to announce Consequences of being, an exhibition of new work by Deborah Roberts, on view February 12–April 25, 2026, Opening February 11, from 6-8pm on the 9th floor. Bringing together large-format paintings, works on paper and, for the first time in her career, ceramic sculpture, the exhibition signals an expansion of Roberts’ practice and the intensification of her research into the history of colonialism. Continuing to use collage to explore identity as something that can be fragmented and rebuilt while reclaiming found materials and images in the process, in these new works Roberts focuses on how Black bodies are seen, positioned and understood on a global scale. #flagfoundation #rdeborah191 #art #collage #painting

Introducing Zuri.

In this installment of “On View,” Deborah Roberts (@rdeborah191 ) takes us through “The Consequences of being,” her exhibition at The FLAG Art Foundation in Chelsea. Through enlarged collaged portraits, expanded hands, and newly incorporated text, Roberts invites viewers into direct dialogue with her subjects, asking us to move closer, look longer, and recognize ourselves in the work.⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ “My idea is that once you find that one particular face within the work, you find your own humanity,” Roberts says, as she joins ARTnews multimedia editor Christopher Garcia Valle at the foundation. Signage and language, referencing histories of Black life, survival, and resilience, underscore how that history remains present today.⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ The exhibition also marks a new sculptural direction for the artist, including a ceramic bust of a young girl whose collaged face, lifted chin, and steady gaze embody both strength and vulnerability.⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ “We are not existing, we are being,” Roberts says. “Our history is long and wide.”⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ Follow ARTnews for more exhibition coverage, and visit “The Consequences of Being” at The FLAG Art Foundation, on view now. ⁠

Everson Museum opens today @eversonmuseum #art #collage #rdeborah191 #contemporaryart #deborahroberts

Vielmetter Los Angeles congratulates Deborah Roberts on the opening of her exhibition “Consequences of being” at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York. The exhibition is traveling from the FLAG Foundation in New York and will be on view from May 16th until September 27th, 2026. Bringing together works on paper, large-format paintings, and for the first time in her career, ceramic sculpture, the exhibition signals an expansion of Roberts’s practice and a renewed focus on how Black bodies are seen, positioned and understood on a global scale. Roberts’ newest body of work utilizes collage to explore identity as something that can be fragmented and rebuilt, while reclaiming found materials and images in the process. Deborah Roberts, “Hands in the air,” 2025, Mixed media and collage on canvas, 72” x 48” [HxW], Photo credit: Paul Bardagjy Photography @rdeborah191 @eversonmuseum

Our Spring 2026 issue cover artist, Deborah Roberts, creates lucid collages of children reaching through the frame to beckon viewers into their world. Roberts discusses moving away from what she calls her “Black romantic style” of paintings into her hallmark body of collage work, making images that communicate the complexity of the African diasporic experience through the equally layered likenesses of child subjects. BOMB Members receive immediate access to our Spring 2026 issue in print and online. Subscribe and join today to receive your copy. Image on slide 1: Deborah Roberts, “It can’t be love,” 2025, mixed media and collage on canvas, 65 × 45 inches. Photo by Paul Bardagjy. Courtesy of the artist. Works © Deborah Roberts. Image on slide 3: Deborah Roberts, “Many thousands gone (Intertwine),” 2025, mixed media and collage on paper, 30 × 22 inches. Photo by Paul Bardagjy. Courtesy of the artist. © Deborah Roberts. Image on slide 5: Deborah Roberts, “We’ve come a long way,” 2025, mixed media and collage on canvas, 72 × 60 inches. Photo by Alex Boeschenstein. Courtesy of Jeff and Marlo Melucci. © Deborah Roberts.

Jammie Holmes is fast becoming a pivotal figure in the next wave of artists.

““Many thousands gone” is a series of eight identically sized collages on paper that were peppered throughout the exhibition. Featuring the same photographic image of a girl cropped at the waist with an apparently xeroxed right eye, each work was uniquely adorned with collaged hair accessories such as bows and ribbons and endowed with oversize hands drawn in ink and pastel pencil, some playing cat’s cradle and others gesticulating evocatively. Cloaking youth in signifiers of politics and commercialism through fragmentation, layering, and cropping, the artist blurs the markers of individual identity while cultivating deep empathy for her subjects.” Deborah Roberts’s recent exhibition at the FLAG Art Foundation is reviewed in Artforum by Daniel Belasco. The exhibition will be traveling to the Everson Museum of Art opening May 16th. Deborah Roberts “Many thousands gone,” 2025 Mixed media and collage on paper 30” x 22” [HxW] Deborah Roberts “Many thousands gone (Hard fried),” 2025 Mixed media and collage on paper 30” x 22” [HxW] @artforum @rdeborah191

Get it! My day at the beach @meta

“It’s not my job to shame anyone, but it is my job to be honest about pain, about what has happened in the past, what is happening now, and how those things have hurt me and limited my ability to be seen as a full person in the world.” #DeborahRoberts Deborah Roberts (@rdeborah191 ) wrote to Samaira Wilson (@samairrrrrra ) about the social critique that underpins her practice.

Process #arte #clay #zuri #miles #darkchild

The FLAG Art Foundation’s current programming, “Deborah Roberts: Consequences of being,” continues the Foundation’s exploration of belief, ritual objects, and transcendence. Roberts’ practice can be understood through a lens of ritual and reconstitution: images are cut, layered, and reassembled in gestures that echo acts of repair, invocation, and transformation. These figures, often confronting the viewer directly, hold a quiet intensity—suggesting the presence of an inner life that resists reduction or categorization. In this sense, the work engages a deeply spiritual question: how the body becomes a vessel for history, memory, and projection. Rather than depicting transcendence, Roberts reveals the conditions under which it is denied or deferred, positioning visibility itself as a charged and ethical encounter. Here, looking becomes a form of witnessing—an act that carries the weight of recognition, care, and responsibility. Deborah Roberts, “Consequences of being” (installation view), 2026 Deborah Roberts, “Consequences of being” (installation view), 2026 Deborah Roberts, “Consequences of being” (installation view), 2026 Deborah Roberts, “Consequences of being” (installation view), 2026 Deborah Roberts, “Consequences of being” (installation view), 2026 Deborah Roberts, “Consequences of being” (installation view), 2026 Photography by Steven Probert Studio