Debra Disman

Artist

  •

Performance

NOMADIC Encounters: “The Center Will Not Hold” 2025

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I participated in the 2025 Torrance Art Museum’s (TAM) innovative contemporary art pop-up NOMAD IV which was held at Del Amo Crossing, 21535 Hawthorne Blvd, Torrance, CA 90503, JULY 11-13, 2025

So Much FUN!

NOMAD IV is a non-commercial exhibition that showcased the diverse and dynamic talents of 175+ Southern California artists featuring sculpture, painting installation and more.

The event itself is a giant artistic get together, aimed at letting artists show what they have been making recently to each other as well as to the wider public. It  presented an opportunity to meet peers, make connections, and arrange for future opportunities. It is a non-commercial exhibition that showcases the diverse and dynamic talents of LA artists.

NOMAD IV was presented alongside the third edition of TRYST, TAM’s international alternative art fair for artist-run spaces and galleries.

I presented a further iteration of my 2023 performance piece,
“The Center Will Not Hold“, this time reimagining the central tarp-based component as a sort of tent, with legs and feet sticking out, a la the classic Judy Garland Wizard of Oz film, which evocation was remarked upon.


Prep at studio. Embroidered Indian shoes long ago gift from sister travels.  Who knew?


All tied up


Packed into zebra beach bag, useful gift from other sister. Who knew?


Expandable/contractable. Basic piece created from a tree landscaping tarp. Flexible material.


Set up near window on second floor of Del Amo Crossing in Torrance. Light streaks across the floor…



Shifting the legs and feet around.


The braids increase the footprint of the work.


Play in texture


Young collaborators rearranged the legs and feet, and then added their own!


The inimicable and always impeccable Louis Jacinto and Kene Rosa, gracing our scene.


Lots of wonderful visitors. Wonder what “Tapestry LA” is?


Virginia Arce, from the Irvine Fine Arts Center, and her partner visited!


What an experience!  Thanks to Max Presneill and the whole team at the Torrence Art Museum and City of Torrance for making the effort to create this magically expansive opportunity for SoCal artists!

RAW FOOTAGE: With The Artist: Debra Disman Part II

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See VIDEO of the “KnoW Safe Place”

“With the Artist: Debra Disman Part II“
In Conversation with Erika Sukstorf
developer of “raw footage” (more to come)
Please click link to view

RAW FOOTAGE: With The Artist: Debra Disman Part I

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Please see VIDEO of the “KnoW Safe Place”

“With The Artist: Debra Disman Part I“
In conversation with Erika Sukstorf
developer of “raw footage” (more to come)
Please click link to view

“Swept Away: Love Letter To A Surrogate”

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I was thrilled to participate in:
“Swept Away: Love Letter To A Surrogate
organized by:
Warren Neidich, Christina Mossaides Strassfield, Anuradha Vikram and Rene Petropoulos  in 2022 to include performances in October 2022 on Long island, NY, and Santa Monica, CA in April 2023.

Swept Away began in September 2022, when 65 Los Angeles County artists sent “love letters” to 65 artists on the East End of Long Island who responded with live performances on East Hampton’s Main Beach in September and October. In April 2023, the reverse took place with 65 West Coast artists creating performances inspired by and in response to their East Coast counterparts’ letters. On April 22 and 23, 2023,  up to five simultaneous performances took place during the hours of 8 am-12 pm and 4-10 pm on Santa Monica State Beach in front of Annenberg Community Beach House.

Participating artists included 18th Street Art Center local artists-in-residence Melissa Altshuler, Debra Disman, Lionel Popkin, Susan Kleinberg, Yrneh Gabon, Marcus Kuiland-Nazario and Dan Kwong.

My work, “The Center Will Not Hold” was performed with Deborah Lynn Irmas and Frida Cano on Santa Monica Beach at the Annenberg Beach House. 

“Swept Away: Love Letter to a Surrogate/s” is a community oriented artistic project that aims to create a transcontinental heartbeat across America. It is hoped that through its combined gestures and performances, a sense of solidarity, so desperately missing today, will emerge with which to confront the ecological catastrophe at our doorstep.”

65 Los Angeles County artists presented live performances over Earth Day Weekend: April 22 and 23, 2023 at the Santa Monica State Beach near the Annenberg Community Beach House on the Pacific Ocean.
“The Center Will Not Hold” was one of them.

A compilation video of the Santa Monica performances can be seen HERE.
https://youtu.be/hJUOFMVXHE0
Video by Matias Munoz-Rodriguez, Fu the Dog Productions

As Warren said: “I hope we created a transcontinental heartbeat.”

HERE is a video of the East Hampton event.
and links to the 4 videos of the nights of performances:

9/10 – https://youtu.be/Z0pnmpt7P2g (Edited by Joe Brondo)
9/17 – https://youtu.be/Dt3WuqcP7Bg (Footage by Anzhelika Tolstikhina, John Driver, Sutton Lynch, and Joe Brondo. Edited by Joe Brondo.)
9/24 – https://youtu.be/2vxMXWWiJio (Footage by Anzhelika Tolstikhina, John Driver, Bronte Zunis, and Joe Brondo. Edited by Joe Brondo.)The list of East End and West Coast artist pairings was as follows:

EAST END ARTISTS  >>  LOS ANGELES ARTISTS:
Suzanne Anker > > Margarethe Drexel
Elena Bajo > > Jasmine Orpilla
Lillian Ball > > Dana Berman Duff
Monica Banks > > Jamie Ross
Dianne Blell > > Lisa Anne Auerbach
Scott Bluedorn > > Robby Herbst
Megan Chaskey > > Lionel Popkin
Scott Chaskey > > Kathryn Andrews
Philippe Cheng > > David Horvitz
Andrea Cote > > Nina Waisman
Ivana Dama > > Rodrigo Arruda
Peter Dayton > > Anita Pace
Katrina Del Mar + Chris Jones > > Taisha Paggett + Meital Yaniv
Jeremy Dennis + Beau Bree Rhee > > Debra Disman
Sabra Moon Elliot > > Rochelle Fabb
Carol Edwards > > Pamela Hudson
Eva Faye > > Patty Chang + David Kelley
Saskia Friedrich > > Fran Siegel
Margaret Garrett > > Susan Kleinberg
Veronica Gonzalez Peña > > Cassandra Marketo
Kimberly Goff > > Cheri Gaulke + Xochi Maberry-Gaulke
Jeremy Grosvenor > > Vincent Johnson
Jerelyn Hanrahan + Laura Ross White > > Andrew Berardini
Candace Hill Montgomery > > Anna Joy Springer
Virva Hinnemo > > Sam Shoemaker
Alice Hope > > Krysten Cunningham
Erica-Lynn Huberty > > Sandeep Mukherjee
Terri Hyland > > Joseph Mosconi
Ruby Jackson > > Alice Könit
No Partner > > Carolyn Castano
Nishan Kazazian > > Beatriz Cortez
Carlos Lama >> No Partner
No Partner > > Badly Licked Bear
Christine Lidrbauch > > Sterling Wells
Donald Lipski > > Raul Baltazar
Sutton Lynch > > Yrneh Gabon Brown
No Partner > > Jiayun Chen
Tanya Minhas > > Allison Wyper
Richard Mothes > > Kristin Calabrese
Michelle Murphy > > Sarah Beadle
Jill Musnicki > > Victoria Vesna
Lois Nesbitt > > Lucia Santini Ribisi
Eileen O’Kane Kornreich > > Iman Person
Jaanika Peerna > > Marcus Kuiland Nazario
Dalton Portella > > Ryat Yezbick
Toni Ross > > Sharon Barnes
David Rothenberg > > May Sun
Will Ryan > > Jody Zellen
Sara Salaway > > Melinda Altshuler
Matthew Satz > > Katie Grinnan
Bastienne Schmidt > > Jisoo Chung
Barry Schwabsky > > David Schafer
Christine Sciulli > > Karen Lofgren
Arlene Slavin > > Jenny Yurshansky
Janice Stanton > > Kearra Gopee
Christina Sun > > Catherine Scott
Carol Szymanski with David Adewomi  > > Xiouping (Whitworth)
Sara VanDerBeek > > Alicia Serling
Ryan Wallace > > Joshua Aster
Ross Watts > > Justine Harari
Allan Wexler > > Dan Kwong
Nina Yankowitz > > Francesca Gabbiani
Darius Yektai > > Barbara McCarren + Jud Fine
Almond Zigmund > > Marissa Mandler

Swept Away: “The Center Will Not Hold” II

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My work, “The Center Will Not Hold” was  PERFORMED ON SITE AT THE ANNENBERG COMMUNITY BEACH HOUSE as part of:  Swept Way: Love Letters to a Surrogate, organized by
Warren Neidich, Christina Mossaides Strassfield, Anuradha Vikram and Rene Petropoulos  2022-23
“Swept Away: Love Letter to a Surrogate/s” is a community oriented artistic project that aims to create a transcontinental heartbeat across America. It is hoped that through its combined gestures and performances, a sense of solidarity, so desperately missing today, will emerge with which to confront the ecological catastrophe at our doorstep.”

65 Los Angeles County artists presented live performances over Earth Day Weekend: April 22 and 23, 2023 at the Santa Monica State Beach near the Annenberg Community Beach House on the Pacific Ocean. “The Center Will Not Hold” was one of them.

Videos from “The Center Will Not Hold” tell our story:  gathering the water, stitching the sand, healing the earth, even if The Center Does Not Hold.
Collaborators: Deborah Lynn Irmas and Frida Cano.

All Video Credits: Mick Lorusso April 2023

Our Work is Never Done on This Earth and in This Life