Deborah Lerner

Lerner’s work considers the material properties of paint, the history of the medium, and how it can be used to explore the universal condition. As in the work of Jack Whitten, they use ‘formal as a means to arrive at subject’ with surface, edge, colour and composition being utilised to bring into being characteristics undervalued within our contemporary society. These are paintings unconcerned with specific topics but instead seek to raise questions around how we approach conversations. They value a nuanced exploration into the complexity of our everyday existence and advocate for the reconciliation of contradictory notions.

Rooted in daily observation, Lerner’s sustained attention to the overlooked urban environment is echoed in the studio where all items are viewed with a curiosity for the application (or removal) of paint; bubble wrap and textured wallpaper sit happily alongside the traditional tools of brushes and pallet knives. Every work is a venture into the unknown and each finished painting has been ‘found’ when, as Philip Guston said, ‘it feels not new but old’.

Deborah Lerner (b. 1989) is an English painter based in London. She graduated with a BA from Camberwell College of Art in 2023, participated in the inaugural Apollo Painting School in 2024 and was selected for the 2025/26 cohort of New Contemporaries. For the past 3 years she has been travelling round the UK visiting public collections that contain work by the artist Prunella Clough.

Lerner was featured by Home & Gardens in their "Artists to Know" 2026 announcement. The artist also featured in The Journal of Contemporary Painting, 2025 (Issue 11:1).