Deb Sokolow (b. Davis, CA) moved in 1997 to Chicago, where her parents were born and raised, and works in a studio in an industrial pocket on the near west side. When she’s not there, she’s trying to write and draw in a tiny room on top of the building where she lives, but spends more time keeping tabs on the McDonald’s parking lot next door. Sokolow’s drawings, books and installations speculate, both comically and critically, on scenarios in which architecture, design, psychology and social engineering overlap.

Sokolow’s work has been included in the 4^th Athens Biennale (Athens, Greece), the 5^th Chicago Architecture Biennial and in exhibitions at the Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven, Netherlands), Drawing Center (New York), Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (Hartford), Sun Valley Museum of Art (Ketchum) and Northern Illinois University Art Museum (DeKalb). Collections include Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Sokolow received an MFA from School of the Art Institute in Chicago, a BFA from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and is a recipient of an Artadia award (Chicago cycle) and two Illinois Arts Council visual arts fellowships. She is an Associate Professor of Instruction in the Department of Art, Theory, Practice at Northwestern University and is represented by Western Exhibitions in Chicago.