Palo Alto, CA, USA, 1977
Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
In her research, Deborah Engel proposes a reinvention of contemplation, focusing on issues related to expanded photography, experimentation with perspective and framing, and kineticism. In her works, the artist expands the role of photography beyond a mere capture of reality, reaffirming its provocative and questioning nature in contemporary art. She creates reliefs that, when viewed frontally, are still perceived as a plane, but when activated, they offer an experience that is both poetic and instinctive in its apprehension of the real, almost cinematic. Her works invite the viewer’s gaze to “dive” into the three-dimensionality of the image, making them return to the surface in a kind of continuous respiratory movement.
Recent solo exhibitions include: “Arapuca” (with Siri), curated by Marcello Dantas, Centro Municipal de Arte Helio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro (2024); “Entrelinhas,” with critical essay by Priscyla Gomes, Portas Vilaseca Galeria, Rio de Janeiro (2022); “Vertigem,” with critical essay by Diego Matos, Galeria Raquel Arnaud, São Paulo (2019); among others. Recent group exhibitions include: XXI International Biennial of Art of Cerveira, Vila Nova de Cerveira, Portugal (2022 and 2020); “O que emana da água,” curated by Vanda Klabin, Galeria Carbono, São Paulo (2019); Monument in Miniature, curated by Davi Leventhal and Ana Pilow, Exile/ABC in Rio, New York, USA (2018); among others.
She holds a degree in Art History from Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP – SP) and in Psychology from Universidade Paulista. She has also attended several courses at the Parque Lage Visual Arts School (EAV) in Rio de Janeiro, including: “Dynamic Encounters,” with Charles Watson, and “Art and Philosophy,” with Ana Bella Geiger and Fernando Cocchiarale.
Her works are part of important institutional collections, including: the Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection / Museum of Modern Art – MAM, Rio de Janeiro, and the Cerveira Art Biennial Foundation – FBAC, Cerveira, Portugal. In 2011, she received the “Revelation Artist” award during the XVI Cerveira Art Biennial, Vila Nova de Cerveira, Portugal.
Entre. Um espaço intersticial que separa dois corpos. Um intervalo em meio a dois tempos, a duas situações. A ideia de entre não compreende somente uma situação intermediária, é também indício de uma relação. As entrelinhas, por decorrência, podem também ser compreendidas por diferentes acepções. Formalmente, podem remeter-se a uma notação geométrica ou a um elemento tipográfico que estabelece respiro entre frases. Para a literatura, as entrelinhas são uma abertura no campo semântico, uma abertura à possibilidade de falar de maneira inexplícita, dizer o interdito, desvelar algo subliminar.
