Deborah E. Masters

Deborah Elder Masters (born Dionysia Kokkinos), a passionate, prolific sculptor and fierce community advocate known for large scale public works across New York City and beyond, died in her sleep on Saturday, December 6, at her home in Chatham, New York, attended by her husband Geoff Wilcox and their dog Duccio. She was 74.

Deborah was a pioneering artist in DUMBO and Williamsburg, Brooklyn in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, and later became known as a formidable environmental activist instrumental in cleaning up toxic sites in North Brooklyn.

Deborah’s work was featured in prominent group shows at The Whitney Museum at Philip Morris and The Sculpture Center in New York City. She showed nationally and internationally; her work is figurative and explores identity, community and emotion. Permanent collections include The Brooklyn Museum. Her most celebrated pieces are permanent installations that have become part of the artistic architecture of New York City. They include:

• "Coney Island Reliefs" (1994; installed in 2012): Two large relief panels for the Metropolitan Transit Authority on the Ocean Avenue Viaduct in Coney Island, completed in 2011. The work was so beloved that Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz declared April 30 to be "Deborah Masters Day" in Brooklyn in 2012.
• "Walking New York": (2001) A 350-foot series of 28 cast Forton relief sculptures permanently installed in Terminal Four of JFK International Airport, celebrating the city's diverse neighborhoods. The project took 4 years to fabricate, and earned the Best Public Art award of 2001.

A self-taught environmentalist, Deborah became known for her community activism. In the 1990s, she built a broad coalition that prevented a 55-storey incineration plant from being built on the Williamsburg-Greenpoint waterfront. She served as the first director of the Greenpoint/Williamsburg Environmental Watchperson Project, a role in which she mapped hazards and exposed environmental negligence.

Deborah served on Brooklyn Community Board 1, and in collaboration with groundbreaking anti-nuclear-fallout biologist and professor Barry Commoner, reformed the city’s maintenance of the Williamsburg Bridge to halt the spread of sandblasted lead paint. In 2007, she was a co-plaintiff in a major lawsuit against ExxonMobil for a long-standing oil spill in Newtown Creek, and her advocacy is credited with making the communities of Greenpoint and Williamsburg safer from toxic pollutants.

Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1951, Deborah always knew she was destined to make art. She earned a bachelor’s degree in art history with an emphasis in fine arts (cum laude) from Bryn Mawr College in 1974 while taking classes at Haverford College, and continued her artistic training at the New York Studio School.

Early in her career her work was shown at Penn State Sculpture Garden (“Angel in Flight” 1987), and in Prospect Park's Sculpture Walk (“Pond Virgins” c. 1986). She had a lifelong friendship with artist Nicolas Carone, with whom she built a board of directors for his International School of Art in the 1990s.

From 1989-91, Deborah taught at California State University, Chico, where she collaborated with students on a monumental work of public sculpture on the campus grounds called “Monolith”, and completed her personal work, “The Three Sisters”. It was here she met Geoffrey Wilcox, who became her life partner.

After moving back to Brooklyn, NY with Geoff, she showed regularly at the trailblazing Williamsburg gallery Ledis Flam, held major exhibitions at Smack Mellon gallery in DUMBO (including “Sacred Matter”, 1993), and at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, NY (“Watcher” 1995).

In 2007, Deborah moved to Chatham, NY, where she built a sprawling studio to continue her large-scale works, including “7 Artifacts” (2013-15), a private commission inspired by Roman ruins, which was installed into the ram fields at Kinderhook Farm.

In 2024, Geoff converted the studio into a gallery for a retrospective of her five decades in art, as well as a series of fine art shows in 2025. Plans continue for future exhibitions through 2026.

Deborah worked and lived large. Together she and Geoff renovated two Brooklyn lofts, a farmhouse in Umbria, Italy and their home/sculpture park and studio in Chatham, New York. She loved to bring people together. An enthusiastic host, she threw regular dinner parties: rooms spilling over with friends surrounding a large wooden dining table filled with food, oversized sculptures like silent guests filling the corners. She will be remembered for her determination, imagination and a deep personal power. She was strong, generous, highly skilled and greatly loved.

Deborah Masters is survived by her husband, Geoffrey Wilcox, brothers Chris Masters and Will Masters, cousins Sharon Red Woods, Dennis "Denny" Red, Sylvia M Keller, Andrea Minick Rudolph, Cynthia M. Murray, Tamara L. Minick-Scokalo, aunt Sylvia Red Minick, and her community of artists, curators, and collectors. She was preceded in death by her mother, Margaret "Margie" B. Baish, father Deonicy "Dee" Samuel Red (Deonicy Spiros Kokkinos) and cousin Samuel "Sam" Red.

She will be interred in the Ghent Union Cemetery in Ghent, NY. In lieu of flowers, donations made in her memory to non-profit educational, environmental or artistic causes are appreciated.

Tempus fugit - ars longa. Time is fleeting, art is forever.