Growing up in Key West gave Debra Yates a quintessential perspective on art. The island, known for its artistic freedom and historic preservation, has long been a haven for emerging and established artists.

Yates may have island roots, but she is also well traveled. After graduating from Florida State University with a degree in advertising design, she studied art history in Florence, Italy. She began her career in New York as an ad agency art director, moved into magazines—first working in design development for Hearst Publications—and then as art director for Miami Magazine and the Miami Herald’s Tropic magazine. Yates served as art director for Florida Home & Garden for 10 years before it ceased publication.

Renowned Brazilian artist and landscape designer Roberto Burle Marx, frequently called the father of modern landscape architecture, is her mentor. For 15 years, Yates’ annual treks to Brazil for Marx’s birthday parties are reflected in the third-world influences in her works.

As an artist, she is known for the abstract nature of her striking mixed media paintings and mosaics. Large-scale commissions include two paintings she did for Neiman Marcus at Millennium Mall in Orlando, Florida; the 135-foot by eight-foot mosaic-tile semicircular wall at the North Beach Transit Shelter at Collins Avenue and 73rd Street, which she created for the city of Miami Beach; and the 100-foot by 10-foot multimedia barricade wall she composed at Miami International Airport.

Her mosaics, paintings and design work have been published in books and magazines. Two awards that Yates is most proud to have received are the 2000 South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship and the 2002 Rodel Foundation Fellowship to Vermont Studio Center.

Yates brings to each project an artist’s sense of color, a graphic designer’s love of white space, a sculptor’s feel for texture, an architect’s eye for detail, a landscaper’s appreciation for earthy elements and an inherent understanding of the importance of light.

Since the 1980s, when the Barbara Gillman Gallery in Miami exhibited Yates’ large-scale abstracts, the artist’s vision has expanded. With more than 16 one-person shows to her credit, she has broadened her scope of work to include sculpture, garden and spatial design.

Her most recent works are “an evolution of layering—of painting, color and texture,” says the artist, who starts with one color and then builds upon it.

There are no sketches or preconceived ideas. Yates uses diverse materials to construct assemblages of both primitive and modern elements. She draws inspiration from the merging of different cultural backgrounds. Compositional balance is achieved through a strong sense of color and shape.

The black bamboo series she started in 2005 utilizes pieces that grow in her garden in Key West, where her paintings are exhibited at Lucky Street Gallery on Duval Street.

Public Projects
2009 Key West International Airport Terminal, 17’ x 4 ‘, painting
2007 Art In The Park, Key West, Serpentine Fence, 36” x 3’
2006 Mosaic Benches, City of Palm Desert, park project
2006 Sculpture Key West, Bamboo Grouping, Fort Zachary Taylor
2005 Art in Public Places, Hanging Tarps, 16 5x7 paintings, Key West Ferry Terminal
2005 Art in Public Places, 45’x5’ painting, Tavernier, Sheriff’s Substation
2004 Sculpture Key West, two mosaic tile benches, Fort Zachary Taylor
2004 “Simply Abstract”, a one-person exhibition of 23 paintings at the Tennessee
Williams Theater
2003 Art in Public Places, City of Key West, 135’x 3’ abstract mosaic tile wall,
Smathers Beach
2002 Neiman Marcus Collection, Millennium Mall, Orlando, 2 paintings, each 60’x72’
1998 City of Miami Beach, Transit Shelter at 73rd Street and Collins Avenue, 135’x8’
semi-circular mosaic tile wall entitled “Drive-by Celebration”
1997 Art in Public Places, Miami International Airport, 100’x 8’ barricade wall,
mixed-media abstract composition

Awards
2007 Studios of Key West, recipient, artist studio space, Armory, Key West
2007 Anne McKee Artist Foundation grant
2004 Anne McKee Artist Foundation grant
2002 Rodel Foundation fellowship, Vermont Studio Center , Johnson, Vermont
2000 South Florida Cultural Consortium, Fellowship Recipient
1997 Spectrum Worldwide Mosaic Tile Competition , residential design category
1995-96 American Society of Landscape Architects, Art in the Garden Award

One Person Shows
2010 Studios of Key West, installation, Key West Florida
2009 Lucky Street Gallery, Key West, Florida
2007 Bravura Gallery, Southampton, New York
2007 Lucky Street Gallery, Key West, Florida
2006 Arteforte Gallery, Seattle, Washington
2006 Ariodante Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana
2005 Lucky Street Gallery, Key West, Florida
2005 New Editions Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky
2004 Lucky Street Gallery, Key West, Florida
2004 “Simply Abstract” an exhibition of 23 paintings, Tennessee Williams Theater
Lobby, Key West
2003 Annie Bolling Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2003 Lucky Street Gallery, Key West, Florida
2002 New Editions Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky
2001 Lucky Street Gallery, Key West, Florida
2000 Lucky Street Gallery, Key West, Florida
1997 Creative Resource Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan

Group Shows
2004 Miller Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2000 South Florida Cultural Consortium Show, Florida Atlantic University
2000 Key West Art and Historical Society, Customs Museum, Women’s Show
(9 Group Shows 1987-1996)

Mosaic Tile Installations
2007 Washington Street Fountain Wall, Key West, 38’x 5’
2006 Seward Johnson, mosaic paving, southernmost point, Key West
2004 Susan Server/Sheldon Davidson, Key West, 46’x6’ pool fountain wall
2004 Art in the Park, sculptural benches
2003 Smathers Beach Seawall, Key West, 135’x3’
2002 Kaufelt Residence, Key West, 25’x5’
1999 Newman Residence, Key West, pool fountain wall
1998 Dunn Residence, Key West, 3 fountain walls
1996 Abel Residence, Miami, 50’ bench
1995 Sunset Harbor Resort, Key West, pool fountain
1995 Sims Residence, Coral Gables, 45’x5’
1994 Sweptaway Resort, Negril, Jamaica, 40’ pool bar
(12 mosaic tile projects completed prior to 1996 in Coral Gables, Florida)

Paintings, Selected Collections
Neiman Marcus, Orlando; SAS Institute, Cary, North Carolina; Disney Hilton, Los Angeles; Nissan Corporation, Los Angeles; Mulia Hilton, Jakarta; Eastern National Bank, Miami; Charles H. Townsend, Conde Nast Corporation; Jack and Teri Spottswood, Key West; Judy Zabar, Key West; Alan Newman Research, Richmond Virginia