Debra Disman

Artist

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Publications/Interviews

Stand, Sit, Hang, Lay….Works Exhibited This and That Way (More)

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I am fascinated by the many ways in which works can be shown. Here are a few…



“Finally and Just for a Minute“, 2022, hanging from the ceiling in my studio at 18th Street Art Center (Olympic Campus) in Santa Monica, CA. (Canvas, burlap, hemp cord, acrylic paint, ribbon) (Pictured, the Los Angeles-based artist Randi Matushevitz)


“Rent Wound Tear, Mend Heal Repair”, 2022,  hanging on wall in slight relief, in the exhibition “Collective Acts of Peace” at the 18th Street Art Center Airport Campus  Slipstream Gallery in Santa Monica, CA. (Canvas, string, hemp cord, lace, acrylic paint)



“Womb”, 2020, hanging from the ceiling in 18th Street Art Center’s Slipstream Gallery, in my studio at 18th Street Art Center’s Olympic Campus, Santa Monica, CA, and in the Arts at Blue Roof Summer Festival,  in the “Please Touch” exhibition at Blue Roof Studios in South Los Angeles. (Plastic hula hoop, raw canvass, jute cord)


“Unfolding Possibilities“, 2021,  on pedestal in the exhibition “Recovery Justice: Being Well“,  at the 18th Street Art Center Airport Campus  Slipstream Gallery
in Santa Monica, CA. (Mulberry paper, sewing thread, gold thread)


“Chromatic Interactions: The Golden Thread“, 2020, hanging on the wall in my studio at 18th Street Art Center (Olympic Campus) in Santa Monica, CA.
(file cards, sewing thread, gold thread,  markers, crayons, pencils)

Stand, Sit, Hang, Lay….Works Exhibited This and That Way

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I have had the opportunity to participate in a number of exhibitions this year, and am fascinated by the many ways in which works can be shown…here are a few!

Table Top: my collaboration with artist Luciana Abait: “drift“, an accordion-fold artists’ book shown in the “ALL MEDIA 2022″ exhibition
at the Irvine Fine Arts Center.

“Excavation of the Interior“, shown in the “Fantastic Fibers 2022” exhibition at the Yeiser Art Center on a pedestal.

Two works shown in different ways in the “PULP: Paper and Book Arts” exhibition at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts:
“Prairie” shown on the postcard and website, and on a pedestal in the show,

and, “Before the Fall“, suspended from the ceiling in front of a wall!

Finally, “Burning Bush” displayed on a pedestal, on a stand, and under glass in the
“34th Annual McNeese National Works On Paper Exhibition” at McNeese State University.

More to come…the sky…is the limit?!?!?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PAPERWORKS 2022

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I am thrilled to participate in
PAPERWORKS 2022
an international, juried exhibition featuring  artists creating work on, with, or about paper,
presented by the  B.J. Spokes Gallery

August 1 – August 31 2022 online

I am showing:  

“Throes of the Body”

 

Juror: Kiko Aebi is a Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Drawings and Prints at The Museum of Modern Art, a position which she has held since 2019. In this role, she has provided exhibition and acquisition support on various projects. Most recently, she worked with Senior Curator Jodi Hauptman and Associate Curator Samantha Friedman on Cézanne Drawing (2021) and contributed texts to the associated exhibition catalogue. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Research Grant and holds an M.A. in Contemporary Art History from Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and a B.A. in Art History and Environmental Studies from Amherst College.

Works by the winners of the international Paperworks 2022 competition will be on display on the Gallery website from August 1 – 31, 2022. There will be a Zoom reception on Saturday, August 13th. Meet and chat with the artists online and meet juror Kiko Aebi, Museum of Modern Art, NY.

Join us for the ZOOM RECEPTION for Paperworks!
Saturday, August 13th, 7 pm EST / 4PM PST!
Meet the artists! Meet the juror! Ask Questions!
Register with this link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIoc-iuqzsoGNdKqDWGnJeAKSIa8RuCl204

ALL MEDIA 2022

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All Media 2022

Exhibition: July 9–October 8

The Irvine Fine Arts Center is proud to announce the opening of All Media 2022, an exhibition featuring 56 local and regional artists whose artworks engage historic and contemporaneous themes. The exhibition will be on view July 9–October 8, with a free opening reception scheduled for Saturday, July 9, 2–4 p.m.

Works selected for this year’s All Media exhibition span painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, fiber, video, and mixed media. Awards were announced at the opening reception for three outstanding artworks and three honorable mentions, all of which were chosen by guest juror Joseph Daniel Valencia.

Exhibiting artists: Luciana Abait and Debra Disman, Eslam Abdelrahman, Debbie Abrames, Estefania Ajcip, Mary Allan, Stephen Anderson, Sheryl Ball, Ryan Bautista, Scout Bender, Danielle Bewer, Barbara Boissevain, Rachel Bunteman, Ruben Cantoran, Dennis Carrie, Michael Chesler, Ashoke Chhabra, Kat De Guzman, Jorg Dubin, Roland Escalona, Dede Lucia Falcone, Silvia Faris, Richard Ferncase, Karen Fiorito, John Flores, Gabriel Gonzalez, Audrey Hernandez Peterson, Gina Herrera, Lua Kobayashi, Joe Lee, Michael Lopez, Kiara Aileen Machado, Kai Mao, Tamara Martin, Jared Millar, Dorsadaf Moinzad, Skip Mueller, Melody Nunez, Francisco Palomares, Sho Peng, Gianni Pham, Alkaid Ramirez, May Roded, Isabella Salvatierra, Deanna Sanches da Silva, Chanchala Singh, Meriel Stern, Todd Swart, Hedy Torres, Noriho Uriu, Michael Usher, Kurt Theodore Weston, John White, Michael Wicks, and Rob Williams.

Guest juror Joseph Daniel Valencia is the associate curator of the Vincent Price Art Museum. In addition to his work as a historian, writer, and curator, Valencia has previously worked for the City of Irvine, as well as the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, and UCR ARTSblock.

“drift”, a collaborative work created by myself and artist Luciana Abait is included in the exhibition!

CONCURRENCIES: Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse: The Visitors

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On June 25th, 2022 I held an open studio to share works created for my 2021-22 Santa Monica Artist Project Fellowship:

Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse: Genius, Trauma and the Invention of New Forms of Visual Art in Response to the Holocaust

Employing research, artistic production, public engagement, the project investigates, compares and links the lives and the groundbreaking work of Jewish women artists Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse on the basis of their shared experience of trauma and loss through the Jewish Holocaust, the remarkably similar intimate traumas of their families (both lost their mothers to suicide), their invention of new forms of visual art through which I posit they respond to and attempt to cope with these traumas,  their early deaths, and the emotional involvement of each with a charismatic and powerful male artist who proved to be influential, even pivotal in the development of their work and artistic/creative breakthroughs.

Themes of the project include being a woman artist, being a Jewish women artist, being an artist during or affected by a profoundly turbulent time in history, the relationship between internal and external turbulence and the creative act and the transformative power of the creative process:  the triumph of the imagination as opposed to the triumph of the will.

On a broader scale, the project examines, through these two geniuses, ways in which the creative process can transform traumatic pasts, and how trauma can elicit the creation of new forms, voices and materials that outlast their makers and continue to reverberate throughout the ages, inspiring posterity.

As part of my Fellowship project commitment, I created a series of works responding to these artists: their oeuvre, their lives, their concurrencies. I was thrilled to welcome friends, colleagues and students to share the works and say hello!  (All images by Steve Hankins Photography)

 




Thank you all, and thank you Steve Hankins, for your beautiful photography and capturing of the event.