Debra Disman

Artist

  •

Exhibitions

“Unfolding Possibilities”: The Screening

By

An initiative of the Los Angeles Count Department of Mental Health, Why We Rise LA took place in May 2021, supporting hundreds of Community Arts & Culture Projects which took place across all Los Angeles County neighborhoods, in partnership with more than 100 community groups, artists, grassroots leaders, healers and other LA County Departments. These projects and collaborations included mural making, ancestral healing workshops, a Countywide public literary art project, a Countywide chalk art program and more to celebrate the remarkable resources and communities in LA County and used arts-based strategies for healing and wellbeing.

I was honored to teach a workshop as part of Why We Rise LA 2021 in coordination with 18th Street Art Center’s Arts Learning Lab @ Home: called: Bookmaking with Self-Compassion. See the workshop HERE!  Nearly 70 online participants learned to create the “Flower Fold” book structure, then added embellishment, images, and words expressing their experience of the pandemic, where they are at now, what they learned, what they wanted to share, their hopes, wishes, dreams, cares , fears, realizations, trauma, expressing the full gamut of human emotions.

The range of words submitted was wide-ranging, thought-provoking and evocative….including opposite emotions and experiences and bits of truth-telling, realizations and wisdom participants seemed eager to pass on to others in other words, humanness in its multiplicity.  How to put it all together?

I took the words generated by this workshop, and requested from the community at large, and stitched them into an Artists’ Book I made as a community collaboration, entitled, “Unfolding Possibilities“.  (“Unfolding Possibilities – Possibilities Unfolding”). 

Jeny Amaya of 18th Street Arts Center created a video sharing about the workshop and the making of “Unfolding Possibilities” and it was screened at
LEFT/RIGHT/HERE: An Outdoor Art Experience
a one-night only interactive outdoor and indoor art experience as part of the exhibition Recovery Justice: Being Well. 
on
July 10, 2021 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm.

Here are some stills from that screening. Such a wonderful experience!


Screened on the side of the Santa Monica Airport Hanger housing the 18th Street Art Center’s Airport Campus, the video came to life as the skies darkened. “Unfolding Possibilities” the artists’ book, was also on view.


A multitude of threads were used to stitch the words into the book.


Jeny did a beautiful job of documenting the process of creating the book,


highlighting the idea of possibility,


and capturing how the flower fold book structure was created.


She showed my 18th Street Arts Center studio,


and the book as a whole, possibilities unfolding.

Always, Possibilities.

Watch the video in full!

Traversing the LIMINAL

By

I am honored to participate in:
Liminal
An online exhibition curated by Jennifer Gillia Cutshall  for
Verum Ultimum Art Gallery, Portland, OR
which tasked  artists to define “Liminal” for this first edition of this exhibition.

Liminal is defined as

  1. relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process.

  2. occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.

​One could argue that artists are conditioned to occupy the liminal state. And a successful studio is a space in flux, poised for adaptation (to projects, challenges, and materials). The focus of the artist is the creative process or the place between the 2 boundaries of “the beginning” and “the outcome or result.”

A gallery benefits from maintaining that liminal state, too (adaptation is a constant).

Verum Ultimum is celebrating it’s eighth year and this exhibition serves to herald the artists unique vision…especially during these challenging times!

“LIMINAL is the word that came to mind when I considered the past year into now. A time of uncertainty, anxiety, the in-between, and also, of possibility. Transition.” Debra Disman

Read all the Artist Statements on “LIMINAL“

View the Show!!!

 

The Fine Art of Denim

By

 

I am excited to be included in the wild and wonderful show, The Fine Art of Denim, Pollak Gallery, Monmouth University Center for the Arts, W. Long Branch, NJ, Juror: Vincent DiMattio  2021

at Monmouth University Center for the Arts Pollak Gallery
running from June 17 to August 14 , 2021.

It is a fascinating show, showing the emotive, expressive and visceral qualities of denim as a material, and its rich potential and capacity to communicate a range of human experiences, ideas, passions and concepts.

I am honored to be showing two works from my “Reading Color” series which are artists’ books featuring denim as the primary material:

Reading Color Reading Color I, 8.75 x 13.25 x 6.25″, mixed media/artists’ book (denim, acrylic paint, board, hemp cord)

Reading Color VI, 7.5 x 17 x 8″, mixed media/artists’ book  (denim, acrylic paint, metal, hemp cord, board, paper)

“Denim, with all its symbols and dualities, is a common item of clothing that unites many around the globe. Dad Jeans, skinny jeans, low riders, bell bottoms, boot leg, wide leg, no leg, 501s, 504s, button fly, stretch jeans, the American dress code writ large across centuries. With so many styles available and ways to accessorize/manipulate the fabric, denim has historically allowed for a freedom of expression representing both individuality and shifts in cultural movements. Denim comes in a wide range of blues and other colors, washes, fades and textures making it a perfect, but not obvious, medium to create fine artwork. Join us now, for a re-imagining of the meaning of denim. Denim that was discarded can open up a new way of looking, a startling way of seeing past the everyday. What we have abandoned, will be presented again, re-purposed from the lives we lived, to moments we experience together “forever in blue jeans.”

Monmouth University’s Center for the Art is exhibiting the work of artists  who use recycled denim in new and creative ways in paintings, sculpture, collages, small constructions and wall hangings, etc. from June 17 – August 14 , 2021 in the Pollak Gallery. Works shown use denim as the principal medium of the piece and the fabric are reconstructed from its original form in some way. “

See The Show Here!

Art Less Traveled

By

“NARROW BRIDGE”, 5.5 x 16 x 3.5″, mixed media Artists’ Book / Flag Book Structure (board, paper, linen thread, tissue, collage, window treatment material)

I am thrilled to be participating in the exhibition:

Backroads: Art, Less-Traveled

(through July 30th, 2021)
at:
Vestige Concept Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA,
Curator: Alexander Sands  2021

This exhibit showcases works of art that venture off the beaten path, especially with regard to travel.   Artwork includes places or experiences involving hidden gems, special or unusual places, wanderings, odd travel, strange encounters, and/or “lost” and fading places.

Featuring work from: Paul Roden, Heather Wendelboe, Julia Scheckel, Bengu Cetinkale, Kent Klaudt, Hannah Ayers, Edward Rossel, Walt Padgett, Majorie and Bob Moskowitz, Mark Dierker, Debra Disman, Kate Snow, Jeffrey Neumann, Paige Kleinfelder, and more!

5417 Butler Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15201
[email protected]
Tel: ‪(412) 532-8969‬

View the show!

“Torrent and Tangle” in “Turmoil and Transformation”

By

I was excited to participate in the “Turmoil and Transformation” show at the Hera Gallery and Educational Foundation, a non-profit, artist-run organization that  has continued to stimulate discussion and challenge perceptions for over 40 years. This creative space has allowed countless artists a place for transformation, exploration, and community with one another,  BRINGING CREATIVITY TO THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1974

“2020 was a year that was filled with worldwide turmoil. The Pandemic. Another reckoning with racism and police brutality. Climate Change, wildfires, hurricanes, and droughts.  The undermining and politicization of science. The widening political divide. An election with voting rights, healthcare, immigration, paid sick leave, income inequality, living wages, reproductive rights, LGBTQIA rights, our environment and the future of democracy at stake.

This begs the question:
Is this turmoil leading to transformation? And what kind of transformation is it going to be?“


Read about the show here !

Hera Gallery/ Hera Educational Foundation presents work that addresses the current turmoil and visions of our future. What are the emotional, physical and spiritual effects of the turmoil and how might they manifest into the transformation? What does our world look like and what might it look like post-2020. Will transformation reflect the multiplicity of voices of America? How will our future be transformed by the current chaos?

The exhibition juror,  Francine Weiss is the Senior Curator at the Newport Art Museum in Rhode Island where she curates exhibitions of contemporary art, photography, and American art. Her recent exhibitions include “Andy Warhol: Big Shot,”  “The Shapes of Birds: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa,” and “Domestic Affairs” among others. Her past positions include Curator at the Photographic Resource Center (Boston, MA), Acting Assistant Curator in the Department of Photographs at the National Gallery of Art (Washington DC), Curatorial Fellow at the deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum, and Curatorial Fellow of American art at Harvard University Art Museums (both in MA) among others. She has taught art history at Wellesley College, Simmons College, and Boston University (all in MA) and has taught and advised students in the MFA program at the Institute of Art and Design at New England College. Dr. Weiss has a Ph.D. in American studies, specializing in art and photography, from Boston University and a B.A. from Wellesley College in English. She has received fellowships from the Smithsonian Institution (Washington DC), Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and Research Center (NM), Center for Creative Photography (AZ), The Huntington (CA), and Harry Ransom Center (TX). She has published widely on photography and American art.

See the virtual exhibition, and hear the artist talks here!

I was honored to show:
Torrent and Tangle: Keep Your House in Order, (aerial view) 2019, 10.5 x 25 x 18”, mixed media (book board, lace, ribbon, mulberry paper, hemp cord, watercolor paper)

2021 Los Angeles Open at TAG

By

TAG Gallery Proudly Presented
The 2021 Los Angeles Open, 
May 11 — June 5

This year, TAG celebrated local area artists with a dedicated showcase from May 11-June 5 in our Sky Gallery in the upstairs loft at TAG.
I was honored to be included.

Participating artists included:
Mariko Bird, Milan DelVecchio, L. Aviva Diamond, Debra Disman, David Emmett, Taz Essa, Pat Shafer Falkner, Tony Gangitano, Daniela Garcia, Kyoung Han, Andy Hann, Gina Herrera, Tom Lasley, Nancy Goodman Lawrence, Monica Marks, J.D. Mathes, Nelson Munares, Vojislav Radovanovic, Brian Reynolds, Emily Sunez, & Michael Usher.

Each artist had 48 inches of linear wall space to highlight their work. In a novel concept, artists collaborate with TAG’s in-house team of artist curators and staff to build each display.


Textile, fiber, zipper string


“Steppin'”, “Facing Darkness”, “White Zip” on wall, and “BedTime Story” (on pedestal).


“Ellipse” with the work of L. Aviva Diamond.