Deborah Ugoretz
Deborah Ugoretz has two loves in her artistic life: creating work in cut paper and painting with acrylics. Her work moves beyond traditional iconography to interpret Jewish and universal thought and texts.
Artistic Practice
In her cut paper work, Deborah explores the realm of negative and positive space, seeking to solve the puzzle of how to build form, shape and images through a very graphic and surprising medium. Her three-dimensional paper constructions communicate through pattern, movement, and shadow.
As a painter, she infuses her work with color to celebrate the spectrum, using it as a metaphor for how the life force reveals itself. Through her expressive work—constructions and mobiles—she explores feminism, the natural world, and political issues.
“I believe that the arts can convey ideas in profound and long-lasting ways. By creating Jewish art I ask: How can I communicate my love of Judaism through my unique vocabulary? How can what I produce bring new and deeper meaning to texts, traditions and prayer?”
— Deborah Ugoretz
Jewish Art & Tradition
Deborah believes that arts can convey ideas in profound and long-lasting ways. Through her work, she brings new and deeper meaning to texts, traditions, and prayer. She designs Ketubot (Jewish marriage contracts), continuing a centuries-old tradition while bringing it into the 21st century with designs that express the unique wishes of her clients
Teaching & Community
An art activist and educator, Deborah teaches Jewish paper cutting and manuscript illumination at prestigious institutions including The New School, the National Yiddish Book Center, and Yeshiva University Museum. She has co-organized the Red Hook Open Studios and co-coordinated an Artist Beit Midrash, a collective of artists who study Jewish texts and create visual interpretations.
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2024
NYFA Folk Arts Fellowship
New York State Council on the Arts
2017-2019
Folk-Life Apprentice Grant
Master Papercut Artist
New Jersey State Council on the Arts
2010
Puffin Foundation Grant
Teaneck, New Jersey
Project: “Conversations”
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2021
"On Scissors and Shavuot"
Jewish Standard/Times of Israel
April 7, 2021
Read Article
2019
"Dreaming of a Third Eye: Deborah Ugoretz on Art and Spirituality"
Red Hook Star Review
Read Article"Passing it On: Jewish Papercutting"
New Jersey State Council on the Arts
Read Article"Deborah Ugoretz Heals Wounds with Paper Cuts"
By Eleanor Bader
Lilith Magazine Blog
Read Article
2012
Coverage of the Brooklyn Museum GO Project
Hyperallergic
Read Article
2011
"The Chain of My History and Heritage"
Interview by Luiza Grunebaum
L'Chaim Magazine, North Jersey Media Group
Fall 2012
2006
"In the Tradition of Our Ancestors - Papercutting"
Monograph featuring Deborah Ugoretz
Folklife Program, a Project of the Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission, New Jersey