Deb Sokolow

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Deb Sokolow is a Chicago-based artist. Her studio is located in Chicago's west loop area.

She graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1996, and received her MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004 [1].

She has exhibited at several galleries in Chicago, and was the August 2005 featured artist in the 12 x 12 series at Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

Her works are maps which diagram a story in a narrative flow chart. Her work has an office drone aesthetic, reminiscent of Office Space or The Office. Her preferred materials are common to office supply closets, highlighter, pen, correction fluid, pencil, thumbtacks, etc.

Sokolow's large-scale drawings feature a nameless, paranoid narrator who uncovers sinister plots. The main story thread is black ink, representing the voice of this narrator. The narrator's doubts and paranoia are represented in other colors, which branch off from the main story thread. She usually works with three distinct voices, which all interact and disagree with each other [2].

Her work has been compared to the work of Mark Lombardi, who was known for his pencil diagrams of crime and conspiracy networks.

[edit] Descriptions of Works

  • Someone Tell Mayor Daley, the Pirates are Coming is a single sheet of blue paper which maps out the narrator's suspicions that pirates have infiltrated your Chicago office. The narration is second person, and you suspect something is wrong when all of your co-workers are wearing bandannas and chunky gold earrings. As you delve further into the plot, you realize that the pirates are after Mayor Richard M. Daley's treasure buried at the former site of Meigs Field.


[edit] External links