Opening Reception with the Artist: Friday, March 22 from 5:00 - 9:00pm
Gallery Talk: Tuesday, April 9, 6:30pm

Deborah Masuoka draws her inspiration from animals, both domesticated and wild and their social order in nature. The rabbit head is a metaphor for how society deems certain individuals/animals as prey and others as predators. By enlarging the scale of the animals’ heads, Masuoka reverses the social order by turning the prey into the predator, thus empowering the underclass. At first glance, Masuoka’s work appears to cast a demur and gentle aura, but once explored, her work speaks to the power and complexity of life and to a society that imposes superiority upon the marginalized. Her work literally and metaphorically imprints the human touch into each sculpture creating a personal connection in a digital world.

Recognized for her large-scale animal heads, most notably her rabbit head, series, Masuoka’s work has been described as dynamic, powerful, conceptually complex and visually compelling. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan in 1984 and a Master of Arts degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI, in 1987, where she studied with Jun Kaneko. She was an artist-in-residence at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana in 1987 and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Nebraska, 1989 and a visiting artist at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, Israel in 2000. Her work has been exhibited nationally and is included in numerous private collections and public collections including the Sheldon Art Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, Reiman Gardens at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin, and the Iowa Public Art collection in Council Bluffs, Iowa.