Artist Statement
Debra Couch’s work is based on connection with living beings, with the environment, and with community. These connections are given expression through the hidden, the mystical, and the invisible. She seeks to uncover the things that institutions and industry purposely conceal, the things we all keep hidden from ourselves, and the places that they intersect.
Her work often depicts the frisson, the unexpected thrill, the contradiction, and the spiritual confrontation. She strives to express the purpose and agency of the animals, the trees, and the planet – an agency which humans have denied and ignored for millennia.
Education
Current MFA student at SAIC, with an intended graduation in 2026.
Group Exhibitions
2024
KINGDOM - The Animal in Contemporary Art, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
Doomscapes and the Digital Beyond, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL.
Poetry of Sculpture, Chicago Sculpture International Juried Exhibition, Prairie State College, Chicago, IL.
2023
Tiny Works, Fulton Street Collective, Chicago.
Little, but Bold!, CSI Project Space, Chicago.
Homogenous Hues, Bridgeport Art Center, Chicago.
Publications
2024
Decapitate, an online zine. Featured What Will We Worship Next?, Time, and Motherhood in the Capitalist End Times.
2023
“Upending the Kingdom: An Interview with Amber Ginsburg,” NewCity Art, July 2023.