Deborah Klezmer is a mixed-media glass artist who works with glass in every shape and size. Her art glass jewelry--distinctive for its crisp edges, depth and unusual shapes--evolved from techniques acquired from her work as an installation artist working in bronze, steel and glass. In both her large and small work, Klezmer explores the idea of balance through asymmetry: "a particularly fascinating dance of form, light and movement as it relates to adorning a woman's body."
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Deborah Klezmer is a mixed-media glass artist who works with glass in every shape and size. Her art glass jewelry--distinctive for its crisp edges, depth and unusual shapes--evolved from techniques acquired from her work as an installation artist working in bronze, steel and glass. In both her large and small work, Klezmer explores the idea of balance through asymmetry: "a particularly fascinating dance of form, light and movement as it relates to adorning a woman's body."
As the daughter of Michael Klezmer and Lois Klezmer, a professor, Deborah was rolled up and down the corridors of art museums in her stroller. At 17, she attended the Dramatic Writing Program at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and worked her way through school as a script reader for Michael Douglas. After she received her B.F.A. in 1988, Klezmer's efforts were dedicated primarily to historical biography. She served as Associate Editor of reference publications including Women in World History (Yorkin Publications, 17 volumes, 1999-2002) which received the prestigious Dartmouth Medal for Outstanding Reference Work in 2001.
All the while, there were pieces of glass all over her kitchen counter, as Klezmer worked to learn the tools of the trade. Soon other things appeared on the counter: antique door plates, keys, locks, fossils. Owing largely to her background in historical biography, she developed a fascination with the visual representation of history from a contemporary perspective. Obsessed with what she came to regard as mixed-media glass work, Klezmer formed her one woman glass company in 2003, Through the Keyhole, and began work as a professional artist specializing in commission installations in New York and New England.
Klezmer moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2005 and opened Through the Keyhole Studio Gallery in downtown Santa Fe. Here she began fabricating in bronze and steel in order to make surrounds for double-paneled hanging sculpture. Klezmer often sets objects belonging to her clients, e.g., pocket watches, family heirlooms, and photos in her commission works.
In 2010, Deborah received the Collector's Choice Award at the Taos Glass Invitational. She has been a guest on several television programs including "Good Day New York" and radio features including NPR's "51%".
