Pia was born in Düsseldorf, Germany and received her MFA in 1994 at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. She later lived in Berlin before relocating to New York City in 1999. She has lived and worked in the Catskills since 2011. Dehne has been an exhibiting artist for over 30 years. Her work has been featured in several solo exhibitions in NYC at Deitch Projects, Haswellediger & Co. Gallery, Blackston Gallery, Charles Bank Gallery, and in Berlin at Achim Kubinski Gallery and AJL Gallery, as well as numerous group shows in NYC at White Columns, Salomon Contemporary, Eric Firestone, Mishkin Gallery, Bushel, Delhi NY and Johan König Gallery in Berlin. In 2020, she received the Delaware County Arts Grant in conjunction with a solo show at the Roxbury Arts Group, Hilt & Stella Kelly Hall, Roxbury, NY in 2021. Since 2019, Pia has been on the board of Directors at Black Ball Projects.
Pia’s work often challenges the viewer’s ability to appreciate the uncomfortable. Using a variety of media that can span from coffee stains to oils and pastels, she strives to always find the perfect material to convey a message that supersedes the object itself. Her techniques are as versatile as her themes and works. Pia has said that her paintings are “like optical illusions -hyper realistic and abstract at the same time- confusing the observer’s distinction between subject and object, form and content, the real and the imaginary…” She can go from realistic outlined portraits like she does on her Women in Shock series, to subtle pastel and acrylic impressionist fabrics as in Supernatural Thing, or even go as far as to create a hyper-realistic illusion of camouflage and deception as she does in her oils in Vanishing Act. In either case, her liminal approach is always in the verge of the real and the surreal. The female form usually occupies an important role in her work, either as inspiration, symbolism, or straightforward study. Yet, she can balance femininity with masculinity as her women figures tend to have a strong and unerring posture that balances well with the cultural, social or political messages she seeks to convey.
