Debra Disman

Artist

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Debra Disman

Swinging the Pendulum

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I am thrilled to be part of:

The 14th Annual International Juried Exhibition – PENDULUM

February 12 – March 8, 2025

READ THE PRESS RELEASE!

The A.D. Gallery at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke  presents an exhibition that shares varied  interpretations of the theme, Pendulum.
Gains/losses, highs/lows, submerge/emerge…our human experience swings on a pendulum. While we all aim for homeostasis, the moments the pendulum swings are often when we feel the most alive, when we are called to act or react. In the past 20 years, we have faced major political, social, environmental, and personal shifts. These shifts have presented us with obstacles, challenges as well as moments for reinvention and emergence. This show presents works that visualize a swing in the pendulum, a life altering moment, a shift in the trajectory. Juror: Emily Beck considered works from a broad range of interpretations of this theme.

I am pleased to show: It’s Not Black and White, 2021, 9 x 22 x 7.5″, book board, canvas, paper, typewriter ribbon, hemp cord

Emily Scott Beck is an interdisciplinary artist and professor in the Department of Art, Art History and Design at the University of Notre Dame. Her work manipulates and re-contextualizes aspects of our identity that are often hidden within the layers of human communication and interaction. Using video, animation, photography, sculpture, fibers, installation, and sound, she captures experiences of emotional vulnerability, unrehearsed performances, gender construction, systems of belief, and women’s labor and leadership. A focus on art as a powerful tool for visual communication and social change is a common thread between her studio practice and her teaching. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the United States, including the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC, the South Bend Museum of Art in South Bend, IN, Elisabet Ney Museum in Austin Texas, and Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, IL

The A.D. Gallery is sponsored by the Art Department of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Serving the university and local community, the gallery provides a venue for student and faculty work, as well as that of local, regional, national and international artists. The gallery helps fulfill the department’s goal of providing outstanding educational opportunities for its students by bringing quality visual arts to the university and the community at large.

In the 1970s the faculty recognized a need for a permanent exhibition space and converted a faculty lounge into a gallery, which served the department for 30 years. In September 2005, the department announced the opening of its new exhibition space. The new A.D. Gallery features approximately 960 square feet of exhibition space, an upper register with a skylight, and the ability to display large-format work.

READ THE PRESS RELEASE!

 

WHOSMUSEUM presents the “Visual Language of Modernity” at the Sasse Museum

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I am honored to participate in the upcoming exhibition:

“Visual Language of Modernity” is visioned to be a resourceful group exhibition showcasing contemporary artworks by international artists. The artworks have been chosen to provide a unique lens at the complexities and modernity of multi-cultural backgrounds and identities in globalization and diaspora. The exhibition will showcase a wide range of art forms, medias and materials, from traditional techniques to digital work and installation art. The exhibition has been designed to reflect the multi-aspects of modern creation.

In collaboration with Whosmuseum and Sasse Museum of Art, the “Visual Language of Modernity” will take place in the  Sasse Museum of Art located in the diverse-cultural Downtown Pomona Arts Colony at 300 S. Thomas St., Pomona.
The exhibition will run from February 1st to February 22nd, 2025.

“Visual Language of Modernity,” a juried exhibition masterfully curated by Shuai Xu, emerges as a groundbreaking showcase of contemporary artworks that challenges our understanding of identity in an increasingly interconnected world. This international exhibition brings together artists whose works navigate the complex intersection of tradition, displacement, and cultural evolution in our globalized society.” —Sasse Museum of Art

The local art community and world-wide art lovers are encouraged to experience this dynamic exploration of  art, culture, and aesthetic presentations emerging from multi-cultural artists’ communities, their artistic languages integrated with innovation and modernity.

I am pleased to be showing:

“Concurrencies I: Charlotte Salomon Eva Hesse”, 2022, 58 x 19.5″, denim, varnish, hemp cord, gold thread

I am looking forward to seeing all the other works in the show, and how they work together, I am sure, in good company.

 

The Hera Rewrites HER/OUR Story

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“Writer Elizabeth Lesser asks “What story would Eve have told about picking the apple? Why is Pandora blamed for opening the box? And what about the fate of Cassandra who was blessed with knowing the future but cursed so that no one believed her?”

Flipping through the pages of your high school history textbook, how many stories are written about women as monumental protagonists? When was the last time you watched a movie that passed the Bechdel test? When was the last time there were more women than men on the Supreme Court voting on the right to our bodies? 

As brands of “faux” feminism partnered with consumerist culture push out media representing women’s liberation through a patriarchal gaze, how can we reclaim the visual language to share more authentic stories? How can our art share the stories of women, trans women, and non-binary folks written out of the history books? How does your work give voice to the overlooked and underrepresented? 

Hera Gallery presents 52 works that rewrite this cultural consciousness for a more inclusive human history.”

Please see the SHOW here!

I am honored to have two pieces in this salient year-long online exhibition, and participate in a small way, in Rewriting Her/Our/Their Story.

“White Zip”, 2020, 21.25″ x 20.5″ x .25″, canvas, acrylic paint, lace, zipper, hemp cord, linen thread, wood

“Into The Bush“, 2020, 11 x 19 x 7 , book board, canvas, sewing thread, acrylic paint

Please see the SHOW here!

TAG: The 2025 LA OPEN

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The Artists Gallery (TAG) Presents:
The L.A. Open 2025
JOIN US:
Wednesday, January 8 through Friday, January 24
Awards Reception: Saturday, January 11th, 2025, 5 – 8 pm

TAG and the L.A. Open celebrate art and creativity in Los Angeles County!

I am thrilled to show two works in this fun and fantastic annual show!

“The Body Politic: Black and Gold“, 2024, 8.5 x 23 x 7″, book board, paint, canvas, metal leaf, lace, cord, netting, trim, beads


“Hopes and Fears and…”, 2020, 24.5 x 16.25″, textile samples, linen thread

JUROR: Genie Davis
Genie Davis is a writer who loves and writes about art as well as a wide range of other subjects as a journalist, biographer, novelist, and WGA-W screen and television writer. You can see her written work in the arts on her own www.diversionsLA.com as well as in past publications of Artillery, Art & Cake, Art Scene, Fabrik, and Riot Material.
She is the curator of 2023’s Leaving Eden, a two-person thematic exhibition at Keystone Art Space; September 2024’s Thresholds, a small group exhibition at Gallery of Hermosa; and upcoming in March 2025, the international exhibition Windswept at Wonzimer Gallery.

MORE INFO HERE!

 

The HERa Rewrites HER/OUR Story

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I am thrilled to participate in the Hera Gallery’s year long, 52-piece online show, “Rewriting her Story“

“Writer Elizabeth Lesser asks “What story would Eve have told about picking the apple? Why is Pandora blamed for opening the box? And what about the fate of Cassandra who was blessed with knowing the future but cursed so that no one believed her?”

Flipping through the pages of your high school history textbook, how many stories are written about women as monumental protagonists? When was the last time you watched a movie that passed the Bechdel test? When was the last time there were more women than men on the Supreme Court voting on the right to our bodies? 

As brands of “faux” feminism partnered with consumerist culture push out media representing women’s liberation through a patriarchal gaze, how can we reclaim the visual language to share more authentic stories? How can our art share the stories of women, trans women, and non-binary folks written out of the history books? How does your work give voice to the overlooked and underrepresented? 

Hera Gallery presents 52 works that rewrite this cultural consciousness for a more inclusive human history.”

I am honored to have two pieces in this salient exhibition, and to participate in a small way, in Rewriting Her/Our/Their Story.

 

Please see the SHOW in its entirety HERE.

My works in the show:
WHITE ZIP

and
INTO THE BUSH

Please see the SHOW here.

Deep Dive into “DWELLINGS” at Artlink

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I am thrilled to be part of a beautiful and timely show, “DWELLINGS” at Artlink, housed in the Auer Center for Arts and Culture in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Learn about and view the show HERE!

I love participating in shows all over the country, and see the extraordinary talent, diversity of media, level of skill and and passion for expression manifesting itself across the United States at all times.  This helps me to feel connection, hope and the sense of belonging to a creative force working to resist cruelty, negativity, smallness and isolationism. Brava to the brave and resilient gallerists, curators, organizations, funders, institutions and artists working tirelessly to support the growth of the human spirit into its most elevated aspirations.

“For the exhibition DWELLINGS, juried Steve Garst, Artlink invited artists to submit works of any media that involve homes, shelters, forts, nests, burrows, or any other forms of inhabited space used by humans or non-humans. Where a creature lays its head can be a place of refuge, sustenance, and identity.  They are cauldrons of growth, filled with love, hurt, anger, learning, and memory.  Often, homes are constructed and, in turn, end up constructing the lives of those who dwell within them, for better or worse.  Artlink is excited to offer an exhibition exploring the variety of human and non-human places that serve as home, in all its numerous manifestations.”

My artists’ book “Window Treatment” is in the show and I am proud to be in such good company.

Please see a video of the SHOW HERE!