Deborah Lerner

b. 1989, England. Based in London.

Deborah Lerner is a painter whose work considers the material properties of paint, the history of the medium and how it can be used to explore the universal condition. Influenced by authors such as Maggie Nelson, Katherine Angel and Amia Srinivasan, the paintings make visible the values which underpin their writing such as nuance and care.

‘I am undeniably a painter of the city, its structure and its patina, but much of what influences me is not visual. Recently I’ve been thinking about the book Alphabet Diaries by Sheila Heti. In the book, Heti takes 10 years’ worth of diary sentences and orders them alphabetically. The raw contents of this book were written by Heti over 10 years without any economic intention, this was a person observing, experiencing and recording, then she posed herself the ‘silly’ task of ordering them alphabetically, just to see what would happen. This method of making feels very similar to how I have been thinking about painting recently.’

Recent projects

Exhibitions include One Thing Touches Another, Maya Frodeman, Wyoming, 2025 and Thank you for Dinner, Flexitron, London, 2025. Deborah participated in the Apollo Painting School in 2024 and in June 2025 received the Eaton Grant.

Artist website