Part truth, part fiction, and always with a sense of humor, Deb Sokolow's complex visual tales are based on well-researched facts expanded by the fantastical mind of an unnamed narrator, who the artist identifies as "you," making the reader/viewer an active participant in almost-convincing events. Sokolow uses drawing to narrate, chart, speculate and direct with a shifty-eyed glimmer, searching for the dirt, the whys, and the covert machinations behind histories great and small. Her drawings, installations and artist books touch on a vast array of concerns: trollmeat and other unconventional ingredients found in the Philly cheesesteak sandwich, cult leader Jim Jones' tactics for mind control; Sokolow's Cousin Irving and his real-life connection to Lee Harvey Oswald, Denver International Airport as the supposed western hemisphere headquarters for the New World Order; shady government agencies; underground networks hither and yon; suitcases; Frank Lloyd Wright's troubles with secretaries; an alternate career trajectory for would-be master illusionist David Copperfield; Kenneth Noland’s uninhibited orgasm inside a Reichian Therapy box; the CIA's failed assassination attempts on Castro; and celebrations of the artistic genius of men. Deb Sokolow’s solo museum shows include Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, CT; The Kemper Museum in Kansas City; The Spertus Museum of Art, Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Abrons Art Center in New York City; INOVA in Milwaukee; and Moore College of Art in Philadelphia. Sokolow's work is in the permanent collections of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Arizona, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Spertus Museum in Chicago and The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction in Bloomington, Indiana. Her work was included in Phaidon’s VITAMIN D2 hardcover survey of contemporary drawing practices. She received her MFA from SAIC in 2004 and lives and works in Chicago. undefined

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