The Quality of Mercy

About The Quality of Mercy

This contemporary figurative oil painting explores themes of politics and culture.

Deborah Root’s dynamic colourful compositions tell an intimate story about her experience during socially relevant and politically important moments in time.

"The Quality of Mercy" depicts an outdoor excursion. Two women observe the central male figure, who looks back at them in surprise. The painting focuses on the man's expression, and his apparent anxiety at the possibly critical scrutiny of the two women at the image's sides, who remain partially outside the frame. The background is a stylized representation of a wooded area in the Pacific Northwest. My strategy of combining classical techniques, particularly with respect to the central image, with more stylized and contemporary elements, as in the background, is intended to underline the persistence of old tropes of gender and behaviour.
The tondo form may remind the viewer of archaic religious paintings, in which the central image of the saint is flanked by the objects and experiences representing their martyrdom. Here, what we are seeing is an insignificant social exchange, but one which takes on larger implications once it is fixed in a representation of the event.” Deborah Root

Deborah Root is a painter, writer, lecturer and professor. She has written extensively on the relationship between visual arts and cultural politics. Root was born in Seattle and attended university in Canada before settling here.
She acquired both her BA and MA in Archeology and Anthropology at Canadian universities and finally a PH.D. from the Graduate Program in Social and Political Thought at York University. Her 1996 book entitled ‘Cannibal Culture’ was included in a 2017 Buzzfeed list (digital media company) of the 16 books to read to understand white supremacy in the United States.
She has taught at several Canadian universities and has sat on the boards of a number of Toronto-based art and political magazines. Deborah Root has exhibited her paintings in both solo and group shows in Canada, the U.S. and Europe since 2017.