Los Angeles, CA fine artist Debra Broz #artistaday

'Duck-faced Cat'
Secondhand ceramics and mixed media

'Cat bird'
Secondhand ceramics and mixed media

* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.

About Debra

Debra Broz began her love affair with unusual things while growing up in rural central Missouri. In her art practice, Broz collects and deconstructs secondhand ceramic figurines, then seamlessly combines them into reimagined versions of their former selves. Broz received her BFA from Maryville University – St. Louis in 2003. Shortly thereafter, she moved to Austin, Texas where she trained as a ceramics restorer, learning the techniques that would become the basis for much of her future artwork. She currently lives in Los Angeles where she is an artist, ceramics restorer, and member of curatorial projects Monte Vista Projects and Gallery Also.

Debra explains the work by saying, “My modified ceramic sculptures are a product of my continual desire to understand and change the meaning of objects, especially those that were once valued, then discarded. I search thrift stores for decorative figurines, then I dismantle, dissect and recompose them using the techniques of ceramics restoration. I often hunt for months or years to find figurines that are the right match. My seamless surgeries create works that humorously, yet pointedly, reflect the overlap between real science and science-fiction, and offer considerations about the power of kitsch, and the “truth” of objects as they pass from one owner to another.”

Quick facts about Debra

Broz’s work has been exhibited at galleries and museums including Track 16 Gallery in Los Angeles, the American Museum of Ceramic Art, Austin Museum of Art, and Houston Center for Contemporary Craft.

Her work has been featured in print in Ceramics Monthly, American Craft, and Frankie magazines; and in two international surveys of contemporary ceramics.