Harwood Museum of Art Taos, New Mexico

August 4-October 7, 2018

Harnessing Light


Bullet Cities (Detail) 2005-2007

240 x 120 x 4 inches

Cast Glass

(Bullet casings found in the New Mexico desert over a 3 year period)

 Vivian Horan Gallery New York, NY

April 27 - June 22, 2018

Taos 1960's-Present

Vivian Horan Gallery

35 East 67th Street, New York, NY

Vivian Horan Fine Art is pleased to present “Taos: 1960’s – Present,” opening April 27 through June 22. The exhibition includes a selection of work by artists who have continued the creative legacy of Taos from its early beginnings as an artist’s colony to the thriving artists’ community of today. “Taos: 1960’s – Present,” includes works by the late luminaries Agnes Martin, Ken Price, and Dennis Hopper, and 1960’s Southern Californian artists – Larry Bell, Price, and Ronald Davis – who brought the concerns of the mid-century Los Angeles art scene to Taos, and became pivotal influences for generations of artists working there. The contemporary artists in Taos give material form to their natural surroundings, and to their experiences living in an artists’ colony where art and life are inextricably intertwined.

Chimento Contemporary Los Angeles, CA

June 4- July 16, 2016

Naima Trailer

 Chimento Contemporary Downtown Los Angeles, CA

Artist talk with Larry Bell and Marc Fichou 4pm. Opening 5-8pm
 
Naima Trailer 2013
9 x 18 x 7.5 feet
Trailer, Plywood, Light, Glass
 
 

Art + Tea Podcast

November 30, 2015


Art + Tea, A monthly podcast of conversations with Artists, talks with Debbie Long in her Studio in Taos, New Mexico.

Additional artists' conversations on the podcast include
Larry Bell, John De Puy, Agnes Chavez, and Rachel Preston Prinz.
 

Lynne Robinson Blog

December 22, 2014


Article by Lynne Robinson 
Photo of Debbie Long in her Taos Studio by Bill Curry

    Debbie Long is an artist who works with Light. You might be mistaken in thinking her medium is glass through no fault of your own; the cast glass objects she creates are in and of themselves exquisitely crafted sculptural pieces, but in actuality they are merely conduits for the light that Debbie manipulates into these otherworldly experiences that are the sum total of her work.

    Debbie was Ken Price’s studio assistant for many years and that long apprenticeship has paid off in spades. Although Debbie is certainly linked to Price’s creative lineage which includes artists Larry Bell and Ron Cooper among a few others, her work defies simplistic definition, nor can it really be compared to the aforementioned artists except in terms of their exploration of light.

    This is art made from dreams. Dreams, but also dedication, discipline and hard work. A poetic inner vision made crystalline and manifest. Deep water and deep space converge here in these installations with their alien yet inexplicably familiar forms that capture, refract and reflect the light Debbie bends and shapes.

    Light as we know, travels in the form of a wave – white light contains every colour in the visible spectrum – and with these pieces Debbie has somehow conjured a way to capture these waves as they travel faster than our eyes can see, to confine them in these fragile vessels that will contain them for as long as they remain unbroken.

    Her Naima piece, a chamber of amethyst light inside a rusty old trailer, where hundreds of handmade cast glass objects collect light from the sun, transforming the interior as the fiery orb moves across the sky, was built for High Desert Test Sites 2013, an exhibition curated by David Hickey, Andrea Zittel, Libby Lumpkin and Aurora Tang, where the artist’s projects were sited in the desert along the I – 40 from Los Angeles to Albuquerque. The NaimaTrailer was sited in the Mojave Desert near Joshua Tree.

    Debbie describes her work as a slow read, an apt analogy. Whilst visiting her huge new studio last week, where Naima is installed, I sat for a while inside another light chamber she has built into the underneath of her sleeping loft. Amber light shifted and became golden, then deeper shades of tortoiseshell as I relaxed, looked up, felt washed by waves of warmth flowing inward from without – or was it the other way around? In that tight space that could have just as easily felt utterly claustrophobic, I experienced a moment of transcendence beyond colour, beyond verbal description. It was as if a deep thirst had been quenched. 

    I came out of the little enclosed cubicle into the large, open room she works in. An assortment of amethyst glass objects were grouped on a table along one wall. They glowed with such intensity after the gentle golden light I’d just been bathed in, it was difficult to look at them for too long.

    I crossed the room and stared out of a high window watching a few birds gather on the bare branches of a tree. I glanced down at the big table that serves as her desk, covered with papers, sketches, books and other bits and pieces of a meaningful life in progress and noticed a torn scrap of lined paper peeking out of a pile. I had to walk around the table to read what was written on it.

    “What makes the desert beautiful,” says the little prince, “is that somewhere it hides a well.” (From The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

Lynne Robinson December 22, 2014  


Paseo Project Taos, New Mexico

September 2014

Naima Trailer

Paseo Project Taos, New Mexico

Naima Trailer 2013.
9 x 18 x 7.5 feet.
Trailer, Plywood, Light, Glass.

 

Harwood Museum of Art Taos, New Mexico

February 22 - May 4, 2014

Art for a Silent Planet: Blaustein, Elder, and Long

 Harwood Museum of Art Taos, New Mexico
 
Yellow Light Box 2013
88 x 48 x 43 inches
Light, Glass, Plywood

Artillery Magazine Los Angeles  Naima Trailer at High Desert Test Sites

November, 2013


Naima Trailer Featured in Artillery Magazine's coverage of High Desert Test Sites  

Naima 2013
9 X 18 X 7.5 feet. 
Trailer, Plywood, Light, Glass.

BBC Culture article

November, 2013

BBC Culture coverage of Art Studio America, a new book about American Artists in their studios.


With Debbie Long, Marina Abramovic, Glen Ligon, Chuck Close, Jeff Koons, Alex Katz, John Giorno, Bill Viola, and Laurie Simmons.


"American Artists Pictured in Their Studios"
Article by Rebecca Laurence
Photo of Debbie Long in her New Mexico Studio by Robin Friend

LA Weekly Article Naima Trailer High Desert Test Sites

October 14, 2013


Naima Trailer featured in LA Weekly coverage of High Desert Test Sites 2013

"If You've Ever Wanted to Take a Road Trip Through the Desert, Do It This Week."  Article by Marissa Gluck

Naima 2013
9 X 18 X 7.5 feet
Trailer, Plywood, Light, Glass

Photo Tina Larkin

High Desert Test Sites 2013 Joshua Tree, CA

October 12-19, 2013 

 
Naima is a  chamber of purple glass and light hidden inside a rusted trailer. Naima was selected by Dave Hickey, Libby Lumpkin, Andrea Zittel and Aurora Tang for High Desert Test Sites 2013, where artists' projects will be sited in the desert along the I-40 from Los Angeles, CA. to Albuquerque, NM. 
 
Naima will be sited on a dry lake bed in the Mojave desert near Joshua Tree, CA. 
 
Naima 2013. 
9 x 18 x 7.5 feet. 
Trailer, Plywood, Light, Glass.

Kickstarter Report from the Mojave Desert, Naima at High Desert Test Sites

     We arrived in the Mojave with the Naima trailer after a long drive through the desert between New Mexico and California. Our site for Naima and High Desert Test Sites was a sprawling dry lakebed surrounded by a ring of low hills. We drove around the lakebed all afternoon searching for the perfect spot for Naima, unhitched the trailer, and camped for the night. We were in the most spare and wild desert spot. The sky was a huge bowl covering the lakebed. At night I was surprised by shooting stars.


     The next day we were hit by a dust and windstorm that lasted two days. We camped in the desert, dust filling the air and all our gear. At night it was cold and gritty. We started to install Naima with the wind rocking the trailer. We stacked the 150 cardboard boxes filled with glass for Naima inside a tent. The wind finally stopped and I settled in to being out in the elements. We camped out for a week installing Naima.


     It's amazing how much more you notice the sky and the light and the cycles of day and night camping out in the desert. I forget or ignore them in the city. I got to see over and over how dramatically the light inside Naima changed at different times of day - sunset, high noon, and even at night under moonlight, which was a surprise. Thank you to all the intrepid people who braved the desert roads and waited in the hot desert sun to see Naima at High Desert Test Sites.


Naima Trailer Kickstarter Projects We Love

August 13, 2013

The Naima Trailer featured on Kickstarter's "Projects We Love" with Marina Abramovic and Goeyvarets String Trio.

      A big thank you to Kickstarter for including me in their "Projects We Love" newsletter this week. It features 3 projects. Marina Abramovic's campaign to create the Marina Abramovic Institute, a place she passionately describes as a laboratory for humanity where art, science, and technology meet. Her description includes a moving statement about the value and power of taking risks. The Belgian Goeyvaerts String Trio and Vox Luminis Vocalists' campaign to record their otherworldly and moving music, a video that put my heart in my throat. And my project, Naima: Light in the Desert.

     Thank you again to everyone who has donated to the Naima Trailer Project so far.

    The Naima Project will be on Kickstarter from August 9-September 8, 2013.


Mark Moore Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

March 23- April 27, 2013

Tow Package

Mark Moore Gallery Project Space Los Angeles, CA




Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico

May 24 - June 15, 2008
Forest

Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM. 

CCA Press Release


Forest, a new installation by Debbie Long at the Center for Contemporary Arts' Spector Ripps Project Space, is a forest of freestanding cast-wax trees made from stacks of massive tree stumps, car parts, and other detritus the artist finds near her home in northern New Mexico. Part of the installation Forest will be created on site at CCA.

Tree Stump Trees

Wax
92 X 32 X 33 inches. (largest)


Gallery 128 Lower East Side, New York, NY

October 14-November 8, 2008
Migrate  Curated by Sabra Moore

Gallery 128 Lower East Side, New York City, NY

In conjunction with Migrate Sabra Moore will read from her book "ON THE MOVE: A MEMOIR OF THE WOMEN'S ART MOVEMENT IN NEW YORK CITY, 1970-1990" at the Brooklyn Museum Sackler Center October 11, 2008

Tow Package (Detail)
Glass (Unique Cast Glass Objects including Doge Ram, Cadillac, Ford, Chevy, Lincoln Hood Ornaments and Abstract Elements)
63 x 70 x 5 inches.


LAND/ART New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

September 18-October 25, 2009

Sculpture as Analogy to Landscape

Curated by Steve Barry


LAND/ART New Mexico Press Release


LAND/ART is a collaborative exploration of land-based art in New Mexico, exploring relationships of land, art, and community through exhibitions, site-specific art works, lectures, performances, and a culminating book. 

Tree Stump Trees
Wax
92 x 32 x 33 inches (largest)


 Boston University School of Visual Arts Sherman Gallery, Boston, MA

March 18- April 25, 2008
Crossed Country Curated by Hannah Cole and Lynne Cooney

Boston University School of Visual Arts Sherman Gallery, Boston, MA


Panel Talk “End of the Road” featuring participating artists and current SVA MFA students, April 16, Sherman Gallery

Bullet Cities  2007
240 x 120 x 4 inches
Cast Glass
(Bullet Casings found in the New Mexico desert over a 3 year period)

Cinemaland Chinatown, Los Angeles, CA

October 27, 2007
NM 10

Cinemaland Chinatown, Los Angeles, CA.

Bullet Cities
180 x 108 x 4 inches
Cast Glass
(Bullet casings found in the New Mexico desert over a 3 year period)