Deborah Roberts: Consequences of being

The FLAG Art Foundation is pleased to announce Consequences of being, an exhibition of new work by Deborah Roberts, on view February 12–April 25, 2026, on the 9th floor. Bringing together large-format paintings, works on paper and, for the first time in her career, ceramic sculpture, the exhibition signals an expansion of Roberts's practice and the intensification of her research into the history of colonialism. Continuing to use collage to explore identity as something that can be fragmentated and rebuilt while reclaiming found materials and images in the process, in these new works Roberts focuses on how Black bodies are seen, positioned and understood on a global scale. Consequences of being broadens the historical scope of Roberts's reflection on the impact of colonialism on Black communities to encompass the histories of Germany, the Netherlands and South Africa—nations deeply implicated in the exploitation of both land and people. In these new paintings and works on paper she repurposes and ultimately transforms the imagery and text of grocery store signage, referencing foods once discarded or given to enslaved peoples that have now been reconsidered as delicacies by contemporary standards. Roberts explores how these legacies continue to shape cultural identity, economic access and the politics of consumption today. Though she addresses the historical experience of dehumanization faced by Black communities—affixing to her figures linguistic traces from food packaging, for example—she also imbues her subjects with presence and spirituality, suggesting that instead of continuing to be erased or co-opted, they may survive and even flourish on terms of their own making.