Deborah Kass American, b. 1952

Deborah Kass was born in 1952 in San Antonio, Texas. In 1974 she earned her Bachelors of Fine Arts at the Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. She then took part in the Whitney Museum Independent Studies Program, New York, NY, in 1972. From 1968-70 she studied with the Art Students League, New York, NY. Kass employs the visual motifs of Pop Art to explore themes which are relevant to the contemporary consciousness. Her works examine the intersection of politics, popular culture, art history, and personal identity.Kass’ first significant body of work was titled Art History Paintings. For this series, Kass juxtaposed stills from Disney movies with paintings from art history. For her second series, The Warhol Project, Kass portrayed celebrities such as City Sherman, with whom she had a personal relationship. In the tradition of Warhol, she used methods of mass production to render their portraits. Her current series uses a hybrid of textual and visual works to explore contemporary American art and culture through the “post-war” perspective. This series, titled Feel Good Paintings for Feel Bad Times, draws equal inspiration from art history and popular culture.

Kass currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.