• NOVEMBER SPOTLIGHT •
Debra Baxter
Colliding with the Very Air She Breathes
Bracing Air II 2016, Bronze, 6 x 9 x 5 inches, $2,300
Coming Up for Air 2016, Alabaster, Glass, and Selenite, 8.5 x 8 x 4.5 inches, $1,600
In the Marrow of My Bone 2016, Alabaster and Malachite, 7.5 x 6 x 5 inches, $2,400
Unapologetic Glory 2016, Bronze and Alabaster, 20 x 8 x 6 inches, $3,200
Sugarcoat 2016, Bronze and crystal on matrix, 7 x 3 x 2 inches, $950
Venus Saved Me 2016, Bronze and wood neck-rest, 8 x 6 x 3 inches, $1,700
Lean (bust) 2016, Alabaster, Bronze, Goldleaf, Roselite, and Cobaltaustinite crystals, 10 x 4 x 4 inches, $1,900
Lasso 2016, Quartz in matrix and Aluminum, 15 x 12 x 9 inches, $1,200
Sail Sister 2016, Wood, Citrine, and Bronze, 10 x 9.5 x 4 inches, $950
The Eve 2016, Bronze and Celestite, 6 x 7 x 8 inches, $1,600
Former Seattle resident Debra Baxter transforms rocks, minerals, and metals into mixed media sculpture. Since her move to Santa Fe a year ago, Debra’s been working with a foundry to experiment with different techniques in bronze casting and fabric casting.
She is interested showing the integrity of materials by exploring the parameters of a material's inherent nature, mining the plain truth of materiality. Her sculptures use material to speak of the body, power plays and questions of vulnerability, which remain themes in Debra’s work.
Debra Baxter is a sculptor and jewelry designer who combines carved alabaster with crystals, minerals, metals, and found objects. She received her MFA in Sculpture from Bard College in 2008 and her BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1996. She also studied at Academia di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy. Baxter has received an Artist Trust Individual Artist Grant, three 4Culture Individual Project Grants in Seattle, Washington, and was recently nominated for a Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award.
Baxter’s work has been featured in Zoo Magazine (Germany), Edelweiss Magazine (Switzerland), Zink, art ltd., Design Bureau, and Sculpture, Seattle Magazine, as well as hundreds of blogs all over the world. Her work has been exhibited in solo shows including We Care a Lot at Central Features Contemporary Art, Albuquerque, NM; ALL I EVER WANTED, Platform Gallery, Seattle WA; So Proud of You, Howard House, Seattle, WA; and Debra Baxter, Massimo Audiello, New York, NY. Her work was also included in Protective Ornament, an exhibition curated by Suzanne Ramjak for the Memphis Metals Museum which traveled to the Tacoma Art Museum. Other group exhibitions include: Making Mends, Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA; Death and Other Objects, Or Gallery, Vancouver, BC; and Woman in the Director’s Chair, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Baxter’s wearable sculpture piece Devil Horns Crystal Brass Knuckles (Lefty) is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery.