Deborah Koenker (born 1949) is an interdisciplinary artist. Her

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...

explores social and feminist themes using a wide range of media. She is interested in a number of issues, such as social justice. She is also a writer and curator.

Career

Deborah Koenker was born in 1949 in Chicago. After she received her BA at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

, Santa Barbara in 1971, she did post-graduate studies at

Saint Martin's School of Art Saint Martin's School of Art was an art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's became part of t ...

, in London, England (1972-1973) and then in 1973 moved to Vancouver where, in 1975, she became one of the founding members of the Malaspina Print Society, a cooperative artist studio, and its first director. Her early practice was aesthetically object-based, printmaking and sculpture that evolved into

which she found fascinating because in creating it she worked with space and couldn`t predict the result. She went back to art school in 1985 and received her MFA from

Claremont Graduate University The Claremont Graduate University (CGU) is a private, all-graduate research university in Claremont, California. Founded in 1925, CGU is a member of the Claremont Colleges which includes five undergraduate (Pomona College, Claremont McKenna Co ...

, Claremont, California. In 1992, she left behind her object-based work.

Exhibitions

For the past three decades Koenker has exhibited prints, drawings, sculpture and mixed media installations in public galleries and artist-run centres in Canada, the USA and Mexico, but in time, crossed over from traditional to non-traditional practice. In 1999, she did an installation for her solo show ''Adrift'' at the Open Space Gallery in Victoria which travelled to the Richmond Art Gallery in

Richmond, BC Richmond is a coastal city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. It occupies almost the entirety of Lulu Island (excluding Queensborough), between the two estuarine distributaries of the Fraser River. Encompassing the adja ...

. The show conveyed dealing with daily illness, in Koenker`s case, Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS). In 2002, Koenker began ''Learning to Draw'', embroidery over drawings and engravings of the Old Masters (still ongoing). In 2003, she became interested in the Mexican agricultural workers in the

Okanagan The Okanagan ( ), also known as the Okanagan Valley and sometimes as the Okanagan Country, is a region in the Canadian province of British Columbia defined by the basin of Okanagan Lake and the Canadian portion of the Okanagan River. It is part ...

and began work on a project that took three years to complete and involved 84 volunteer participants, ''Las Desaparecidas'' (The Missing ones), shown in 2006 in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. She developed the show with the help of people living in the town of Tapalpa,

Jalisco Jalisco (, , ; Nahuatl: Xalixco), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco ; Nahuatl: Tlahtohcayotl Xalixco), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal En ...

, Mexico, who participated in creating a long textile piece with their embroidered fingerprints. Together with digital photos of these participants and the names or photos of victims, it was a tribute to the hundreds of missing and murdered women and girls in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua City — mostly poor factory workers employed in the primarily US owned manufacturing plants along the border. In 2016, Koenker completed a solo exhibition at the Kelowna Art Gallery on migrant Mexican farmworkers hired by the Okanagan Valley’s fruit orchards and vineyards titled ''Deborah Koenker: Grapes and Tortillas''. (The words "Grapes and Tortillas" are from a poem by

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. The author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, an ...

). Through the show, Koenker hoped to give viewers some sense of the culture of Mexico, including its darker side. The show was a tribute to the farmworkers, their life, beliefs and what matters to them. As well as portraits in photographs of 160 of the men and women, Koenker added other elements to the overall installation. The largest of these referred to Mexican shrines. There was also a facsimile of a Mexican kitchen, and a shrine to the

Virgin of Guadalupe Our Lady of Guadalupe ( es, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe), also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe ( es, Virgen de Guadalupe), is a Catholic title of Mary, mother of Jesus associated with a series of five Marian apparitions, which are believed t ...

, accompanied by a musical soundtrack. In 2016 as well, she did a residency/exhibition for the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture in

Dawson City Dawson City, officially the City of Dawson, is a town in the Canadian territory of Yukon. It is inseparably linked to the Klondike Gold Rush (1896–99). Its population was 1,577 as of the 2021 census, making it the second-largest town in Yuko ...

, Yukon, a collaborative project with Karen Kazmer aka Volcano Collective.

Public collections

Her work is included in many public collections, such as the

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (AGGV) is an art museum located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Situated in Rockland, Victoria, the museum occupies a building complex; made up of the Spencer Mansion, and the Exhibition Galleries. The ...

. A full list is given in the catalogue for ''Deborah Koenker: Grapes and Tortillas'', pages 141-142.

Curatorial work

Koenker`s practice also involves curatorial projects, catalogue essays and reviews, such as the exhibition which she curated,

Wanda Koop Wanda Koop is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Life Koop was born on November 5, 1951 in Vancouver, British Columbia, to Russian Mennonite parents who had escaped the Russian Revolution. Koop gradua ...

`s ''Face To Face'', in 2009-2010 at the Richmond Art Gallery, Richmond, B.C. In 2016, she left her position as an Associate Professor in Visual Arts at

Emily Carr University Emily Carr University of Art + Design (abbreviated as ECU) is a public art university located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The university's campus is located within the Great Northern Way Campus in Strathcona. The university is a co-e ...

in Vancouver to concentrate on her art practice.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Koenker, Deborah 1949 births Living people 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists Alumni of Saint Martin's School of Art American installation artists Artists from Chicago Claremont Graduate University alumni University of California, Santa Barbara alumni American emigrants to Canada Canadian installation artists