1993 Deborah Slowey: Paintings ‘89-’93, Chuck Levitan Gallery, New York, NY
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2020-23 Women Caucus for Art, various group traveling exhibitions, Florida.
2018-23 Surgeon’s Lounge, "Rotating Pop Up Art by Slowey RN," Manatee Hospital, FL
2020 - Hotbed Gallery, “PAFA fellowship” Philadelphia PA
2020- Morean Center for Art, “Women Who Work” St Petersburg, FL
2019- Modern Love Club, “FOMO” Lower East Side, NYC
2018 - KYO Gallery, "Resist and Recover" Old Town Alexandria, VA
2017 - KYO Gallery, "From East to West" Old Town Alexandria, VA
2016 - Art Center of Sarasota, "Florida Flavor" Sarasota, FL
2015 - Gallery 620, "Annual Members Exhibit" St. Petersburg, FL
2014 - Tampa Museum of Art, "Art After Dark" Tampa, FL
2012 - Wabi Sabi Gallery, "Shark, Shark, SHARK" Indian Rocks Beach, FL
2010 - Artful Living, "Identity Crisis, reaction to the Oil Spill in the Gulf" St Petersburg, FL
2008 - Motion XI, "5 exhibits of Slowey's Pop up in Gallery Series" Tampa Bay Area, FL
2007 - St Pete Collaborative, "Home Bound", Williams Park, St Petersburg, FL
2006 - College of Mount St Vincent, "Faculty and Guests", Riverdale NY
2005- Boyden Gallery, "Slowey and Barnet" St Mary’s College of Maryland, St Mary, MD
2004 - Broome Street Gallery, "NY Artist Equity 50th Anniversary", New York, NY
2000 - Bob Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, "Year of the Woman", Beijing, China
2000 - Blackburn's PMW, "Prints for the Pra Wildlife Sanctuary", Arana Curita, Brazil
1991 - Anchorage Museum of Art, "From Aardvark to Zebra", Anchorage, Alaska USA
Public Collections:
Ambassadress Collection in the US Embassy in France.
St Mary's College of Maryland, permanently exhibited.
Downingtown High, permanent collection/view.
Press:
Clark Hulings interview by Sofia Perez https://debslowey.com/debsloweyblog/2019/6/15/interview-by-clark-hulings-fund-for-visual-artistshttps//debslowey.com/blog-page-url/2017/6/29/new-post-workingsmalller
Tamp Bay Magazine https://images.app.goo.gl/HYfhjg7kXAULfLVw8
Voyage Tampa http://voyagetampa.com/interview/rising-stars-meet-debi-slowey-raguso-of-tampa-bay/?fbclid=IwAR2dPPg9gc6XsfeOJpXbOZTaKE1K0n6Xyk910L0Wj8qIi8EMi0ZY-1g2i6c
Member of the Following Organizations:
Contemporary Circle Women's Caucus for Art: Co-chair Southeastern United States Regional director ArtistVenu The Hope Museum; board of directors
Essay on Recent Artworks
When looking over the paintings of Slowey-Raguso you may come across a figure you recognize from Greek mythology: perhaps Artemis, Daphne or Apollo. Then again, you might also see Albert Einstein’s thinking, Joan of Arc’s determination or a mighty blue whale in harmony with the oceans. The artist’s fantastic mix of imagery—derived from myths, science and personal experience—emanate from a personal pantheon that illustrates what Slowey-Raguso calls a “humanistic conviction of faith.” Ancient stories, Catholic notables, and flash insights from the artist’s lucid dreams also make appearances in her charmingly idiosyncratic and almost psychedelically vivid works.
In one recent canvas, A Sign in the Sky of Something Somewhere Else, a yellow octopus with red spots sprawls in the lower left, unfurling its tentacles, an emblem of limited, deadly beauty. Beyond it, a Fibonacci spiral winds towards a distant vast universe (Orion) overseen by a dolphin and her calf, a symbol of motherly intelligence. Mathematically charged rectangles, filled with strong colors of emerald green, deep blue and bright yellow ground the composition. Adding to the pure sensation of the piece, the effects of bright oil colors are supplemented by other materials: crystals, gold leaf and flocking.
Slowey-Raguso explains the inherently mathematical (and abstract) underpinnings of her art in this way:
I have a firm conviction that a painting can be composed to bring a person a sense of awe and wonder by a visual, in your face composition. Kind of like a collective unconscious of Jung but not cerebral but visual when we pick up a seashell and see it as beautiful; why is a “perfect rose” perfect? A symphony is different from a waltz because of some innate, underlying structure. In my painting, these structures lie in numbers: Fibonacci and the geometric manifestation of Fibonacci, a Logarithmic spiral, not the “rule of thirds”. The law of chance is also married to it and can be understood by the patterns, or un-patterns, in fractals.
Taking from a variety of myths and assembling her own is Slowey-Raguso’s ongoing personal project. “Your life and times,” she explains, “can appear in a painting to help you feel depth again, and to explain why you felt a certain way in the past.” It is that sense of underlying emotion, transmitted through personal symbols, that charges each painting with its singular beauty. This artist and painter is a creator who is infinitely moved by Creation and who has found a way to share that sense of awe through her art.
Education: 1979-83 Painting, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA 1991-95 Fine Art Printmaking Atelier, Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, New York, NY 1981-83 History & Aesthetics, The Barnes Foundation School of Art, Philadelphia
Solo Exhibitions: 2004 Deb Slowey: 10 Years of Art, The Old Stone House, Hasbrouck, NY 2002 Wonderful Webs, Statler Hall, SUNY Sullivan Campus, Lock Sheldrake, NY 1993 Deborah Slowey: Paintings ‘89-’93, Chuck Levitan Gallery, New York, NY
Selected Group Exhibitions: 2020-23 Women Caucus for Art, various group traveling exhibitions, Florida. 2018-23 Surgeon’s Lounge, "Rotating Pop Up Art by Slowey RN," Manatee Hospital, FL 2020 - Hotbed Gallery, “PAFA fellowship” Philadelphia PA 2020- Morean Center for Art, “Women Who Work” St Petersburg, FL 2019- Modern Love Club, “FOMO” Lower East Side, NYC 2018 - KYO Gallery, "Resist and Recover" Old Town Alexandria, VA 2017 - KYO Gallery, "From East to West" Old Town Alexandria, VA 2016 - Art Center of Sarasota, "Florida Flavor" Sarasota, FL 2015 - Gallery 620, "Annual Members Exhibit" St. Petersburg, FL 2014 - Tampa Museum of Art, "Art After Dark" Tampa, FL 2012 - Wabi Sabi Gallery, "Shark, Shark, SHARK" Indian Rocks Beach, FL 2010 - Artful Living, "Identity Crisis, reaction to the Oil Spill in the Gulf" St Petersburg, FL 2008 - Motion XI, "5 exhibits of Slowey's Pop up in Gallery Series" Tampa Bay Area, FL 2007 - St Pete Collaborative, "Home Bound", Williams Park, St Petersburg, FL 2006 - College of Mount St Vincent, "Faculty and Guests", Riverdale NY 2005- Boyden Gallery, "Slowey and Barnet" St Mary’s College of Maryland, St Mary, MD 2004 - Broome Street Gallery, "NY Artist Equity 50th Anniversary", New York, NY 2000 - Bob Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, "Year of the Woman", Beijing, China 2000 - Blackburn's PMW, "Prints for the Pra Wildlife Sanctuary", Arana Curita, Brazil 1991 - Anchorage Museum of Art, "From Aardvark to Zebra", Anchorage, Alaska USA
Permenant Collections: Ambassadress Collection in the US Embassy in France. St Mary's College of Maryland, permanent exhibited collection. Downingtown High School, Library Bob Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Herb and Dorthy Vogel Bequest to American Museums
Member of the Following Organizations: The Contemporary Circle, NYC & virtual Women's Caucus for Art: Co-chair Southeastern USA Regional director Florida WCA, past president