ACCUMULATION
Debra Greene
May 30-July 4
Artist’s Reception: May 30, 2-4 pm
Accumulation: A gathering of pieces from different bodies of work created over many years.
Accumulation: Assembly of the residue of many repetitive actions taken.
Accumulation: Seconds become minutes that become hours that become days that become months that become years that become life.
The Fourth Wall has finalized the process of sifting through decades of work by SF artist Debra Greene: much of which is meticulous, obsessive, and meditative. Whether the piece consists of tiny holes made by thousands of pinpricks, or coffee marks that Debra has collected with each morning's cup of coffee since 2012, viewers are invited to look differently at materials they see every day. The repetitive detail in the work invites one to lean in and examine what has been accumulated.
13 × 13 Elementals: White
2009
Acrylic and brad nails
31” x 22”
Throughout Debra Greene's career, she has taken ordinary materials and transformed them into objects that are greater than their individual parts-- concrete, coffee, paint, shredded paper, thread, cellophane, and labels; the list is endless. The outcome is unexpected.
From 2012 to the present, she has made a painting a day using coffee marks to create a kind of diary. She saves shredded personal documents and reconfigures them into sculptural shapes and forms. Paint is used in unconventional ways, applying it directly from the tube unmediated by a brush or palette knife. Each mark of paint has its own distinct identity; systems are created using grids and/or numbers, patterns can be discerned. In the finished pieces, the many individual paint marks gathered have unique resonance; the repetitive mark making becomes Time made visible.
Greene states, “I believe wholeheartedly in what I am creating even though it has never existed before. My art emerges from elements that are often unworthy of consideration”.
Still Life with Thread
2001
Thread
Variable
Book # 2
2026
Book, paint
Variable
Data Inventory: 615 Grey
2006
Acetate, acrylic ink
46” x 31”
Debra Greene is an artist and sculptor who has shown in Boston, Santa Monica, Portland Oregon, San Francisco, and Oakland. Greene won the Cadogen Fellowship from The San Francisco Foundation in 1995. She was nominated twice for the SECA award, shortlisted in 2002.
In the early 80”s Debra Greene moved to California from Massachusetts where she studied improvisational theater with Ruth Zaporah at Action Theater in Berkeley, and then metalsmithing for several years at San Francisco State with Dawn Nakanishi. She also took a keen interest in crochet, studying and learning the art of crochet lacemaking.
After taking a sculpture class she realized that she spoke a language that she had not known existed.
This led her to take classes at California College of Arts and Crafts (CCAC) where she studied with Carole Beadle in fiber arts, as well as Bella Feldman, David Ireland, and Mark Thompson in Sculpture. Bella Feldman advocated for Debra to get into the MFA program at CCAC without a BA. She received her MFA from CCAC in 1997.
Debra was chosen to be an Introductions Artist at Patricia Sweetow Gallery of San Francisco in 1998. Her work was shown at the Patricia Sweetow Gallery from 1997 to 2001. From 2006 to 2011, Debra showed at Limn Gallery, curated by Christine Duval. From 1984 to 2014, Debra worked at the legendary nightclub The Endup. House music and the nightclub culture have helped fuel her creative practice. After LIMN closed and she left The Endup, she took writing workshops focusing on writing prose and poetry. At this time she also transitioned from club to restaurant bartending. Debra Greene has always kept a studio practice and consistently followed impulses for making that have led to developing new bodies of work.
This is her first show at The Fourth Wall Gallery.