Collection: Maurer, Deborah

Deborah Maurer has been a professional artist for more than four decades. Over those years, she has won numerous awards for her sculptures and paintings and done both corporate and private commissions. She has exhibited widely, and her work is in private and corporate collections in U.K., Norway, Belgium, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Hong Kong, Cayman Islands, the USA, and Canada.

Deborah's education is a collage – a compilation of Ontario College of Art and Design, University of Toronto (Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations), Open Studio Toronto (Printmaking), Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, as well as many other courses and workshops along the way. Many artists have influenced her work, however most notable is the late Canadian figurative painter Telford Fenton, under whom she studied and with whom she shares a hometown – Chesley, Ontario.

Artist Statement

The human form has interested me as far back as I can remember, but what truly intrigues me is what lies beyond the exterior - the heart and the mind. It’s how we think and feel about ourselves and others, and how we relate to one another that inspires me and informs my work. This theme has persisted throughout my artistic career.

I’m an expressionist by nature, and by nurture. This seems like a strange thing to say however it is true. When I was young, my father (in the Canadian Army) served in the Republic of the Congo, Africa, with United Nations’ peacekeeping forces. While stationed there he sent home large parcels packed with paintings, sculptures, and handcrafted goods made by local artists and artisans. Those pieces, especially the wood sculptures and masks, had a deep impact on me, such that their influence remains with me to this day. As my interest in the work of other artists grew, I discovered and fell in love with the German Expressionists, and as with African sculpture, the expressionists equally nurtured what was already in my nature.

I’m an interdisciplinary figurative artist; a painter, sculptor, printmaker, and mixed media artist who explores life through my art.