Born: United Kingdom
Debra Eck is a British artist living and working in the USA. She holds a BFA in painting from the University at Buffalo and an MA in Visual Culture from Northumbria University in Newcastle in the UK. She is an internationally exhibited mixed media artist whose work focuses on the lives and work of women using thread, paper and text. Her work finds expression in repetitive making; most of her work requires tens, even hundreds, of hours of intensive hand labour to create; the meditative nature of this slow unfolding of the work allows for ideas to fully manifest, for the threads of thought to untangle and re-weave themselves into new forms.
Eck is a SUNY Distinguished Adjunct who teaches at Jamestown Community College and SUNY Fredonia, as well as at workshops in book arts across the USA and in Europe. She is also the curator of the 3rd on 3rd gallery for the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts. Eck is deeply committed to, and actively involved with many local arts organizations, and is the founder and creative co-director of the Women Create Biennial in Western New York. She has been recognized by both Zonta and the YWCA for her contributions to the arts and her support of women artists in her community.
Selected exhibition record
Upcoming Solo Exhibitions
2019 Secret Garden, Patterson Gallery, Westfield NY
Solo Exhibitions
2018 Embroidered, Western New York Book Arts Center, Buffalo NY
Working in Place, Crary Gallery, Warren, PA
2017 Meditation, Ellicottville Library, Ellicottville, NY
Palimpsest, LMNOP Gallery, Sherman, NY
2014 A Woman’s Work, Heritage Room, Lakewood, NY
2009 Mad Women & Immoral Wallpaper, Patterson Gallery, Jamestown, NY
Bookish, Wellsville Art Center, NY
2007 Wallpapering Utopia, Community Gallery, JCC, Jamestown NY
2005 Madness Calling, Palace Gallery, Jamestown, NY
Madness Calling, Medium’s League, Lily Dale Assembly, NY
2002 North and South – spiritual landscapes, Iqualuit, Nunavut territory, Canada
Selected Group Exhibitions
2018 They sail across the mirrored sea, Liverpool Independent Biennial, Liverpool UK
Pulp Fictions, Western New York Book Arts Center, Buffalo NY
Illustrated Accordion, Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, MI
Tiny, Editions Studio, Seattle Washington
2017 Faculty Exhibition, Weeks Gallery, Jamestown, NY
Kozo, Western New York Book Arts Center, Buffalo, NY
Nasty Women, Newcastle, UK
2016 Works with Paper, joint exhibit with Carey Watters, Center Gallery, Olean NY
NSAA Member’s Exhibit, Octagon Gallery, Westfield, NY
Summer Sensation, Sensory Winery, Ripley, NY
Members Show, Western New York Book Arts Center, Buffalo NY
Pulp Fiction, Hive Art Space, York PA
The Thread of Life, Cromford Mills, UK
2015 International Art of the Book, Rochester, NY
Ideation Experience. Abecedarian Gallery, Denver, Colorado
Member’s Show, Western New York Book Arts Center, Buffalo NY
PAGES, International Contemporary Artist’s Book Fair, Leeds, UK
2014 Woven, Sewn & Pressed, Dykeman Young Gallery, Jamestown, NY
Love for Sale, secrets & lies, Studio Hart, Buffalo NY
Women Create, 3rd on 3rd Gallery, Jamestown, NY
Colonized, 3rd on 3rd Gallery, Jamestown, NY
2013 Art of the Book, Rochester Library, Rochester, NY
SWAN 2013, 3rd on 3rd gallery, Jamestown, NY
Love for Sale, Studio Hart, Buffalo NY
Women Create, 3rd on 3rd gallery, Jamestown, NY
2012 Bound, Centre for Fine Print Research at UWE Bristol, UK
Inhospitable as part of Liverpool Independents Biennial, Liverpool, UK
Divided We Fall, Leeds, UK
Tangled, (with Molly Jarboe), Octagon Gallery, Westfield, NY
Occupy Lunch, CFA, University at Buffalo, NY
Routes to Art Preview, Quick Center, St. Bonaventure, NY
Women Create (grant funded community installation), touring
Stockholm Independent Art Market, Stockholm, Sweden
2011 Routes to Art, Center Gallery, Olean NY
Juror’s Choice Show, Center Gallery, Olean NY
2010 Audio/Visual, Wright Gallery, Jamestown, NY
CCAC Members Show, (juried), Center Gallery, Olean NY
Mirrored, BookArtsBookShop, London, UK
Routes to Art, Quick Center, St. Bonaventure, NY
Cabinet of Curiosities, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Rearranging Womanhouse, Adams Gallery, Dunkirk, NY
2009 One he(art), One Tribe Collaboration, Germany
DisCo, Online Collaboration
Homegrown Excellence, Weeks Gallery, Jamestown, NY
Art House Co-op Sketchbook Tour, Selected US Cities
2008 Collected Works, Octagon Gallery, Westfield, NY
2007 Faculty Show, Weeks Gallery, Jamestown, NY
2006 Bollywood Satirized, Weeks Gallery, Jamestown, NY (with Annu Palakunnathu Matthew)
2005 Southern Tier Biennial, Olean, NY (catalog)
Regional Artists Show, Palace Gallery, Jamestown, NY
Selected Tactical Installations
2004 Abandon Hope, Richardson Building, Buffalo, NY
2003 Madness calling, Richardson Building, Buffalo, NY
2002 Is It Art? Center for Visual Arts, Buffalo, NY
Awards & Residencies
2018 United Arts Appeal Individual Artist Stipend
Grant from Allegheny Cattaraugus Chautauqua Fund for Women to study in Scotland
Artist in Residence Cattaraugus High School
2017 Artist in Residence Chautauqua Central School
Artist in Residence Cattaraugus High School
Distinguished Artist Award, CCAC
2016 ASI artist in Residence Allegheny Limestone High School
2015 2nd place Artists Book, International Art of the Book, Rochester
JCC Distinguished Faculty Award
2014 YWCA Women of Achievement, Arts & Culture
2013 United Arts Appeal Individual Artist Stipend
2012 Residency – Turkey Land Cove Foundation
NYFA Mark Program
Zonta Club Women in Leadership Award
Ray and Wyn Ritchie Evans Foundation Artists in the Community Grant with Jennifer Schick
2011 JCC President’s Award for excellence in teaching
United Arts Appeal Grant for Art in the Wild in conjunction with Jamestown Audubon Society
2010 Community Foundation Grant for work at Jamestown High School with English Department
NYS Decentralization Grant, with Aspire and Jamestown Audubon
Jurors Award, 3rd place, CCAC Members show