Deborah Rodriguez: A Thousand Words

August 30 - DECEMBER 10, 2021

Patricia Thompson Alumni + Skylight Galleries

Photographer, multimedia artist and Ringling College graduate Deborah Rodriguez (BFA ‘86) is, above all, a storyteller. “The ultimate story is the acknowledgement that we are one human race. It is my goal to express my membership in this human race through the lens of my African American soul.”

In “A Thousand Words,” Rodriguez tells her story with handmade garments and photographs. The garments serve as a second skin of sorts, a snapshot in three dimensions that capture a moment in time. The series begins with a crinoline dress she would have worn as a five-year-old, along with ruffled socks and shiny white shoes that help tell the viewer where she came from. Her photographs share a garden world wrapped behind white garments and present like visual memory-wishes, with her own painted face serving as her latest canvas.

Through it all is a preoccupation with paper. “Paper has a strong voice in everything I create. The spirit of paper is very much like the human spirit: easily torn but never destroyed.  Whether I paint, make collages or take photographs, the essence of paper remains.”

This exhibition runs August 30 – December 10, 2021. In-person viewings are free and open to the public Monday-Friday, 9am-3pm. The Thompson Alumni + Skylight Gallery is located at 2621 Bradenton Road, on the first floor of the Keating Center. For more information or to view the virtual exhibition, please visit ringlingcollege.gallery.

This exhibition is made possible, in part, by Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax revenues, Ringling College Library Association, WUSF Public Media, and Artwork Installation LLC