Debra Disman

Artist

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Art in the time of pandemic

Exhibitionista: “Turmoil and Transformation” at the Hera Gallery and Educational Foundation

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I am thrilled to be showing “Torrent and Tangle: Keep your House In Order” 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 which has been 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.

Is this turmoil leading to transformation? And what kind of transformation is it going to be?“

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 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!

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)

Read about the show here !

 

RECOVERY JUSTICE: Being Well

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I am thrilled to participate in:

RECOVERY JUSTICE: Being Well

March 8, 2021 – September 11, 2021
at
18th Street Arts Center (Airport Campus)

“Being Well” is what we seek together as neighbors, and recalls one of the central guiding principles of the City of Santa Monica, the notion of “wellbeing” as key to civic health. Recovery Justice: Being Well, aims to highlight the recent circumstances that have evolved during the pandemic (racial justice demonstrations and destruction, as well as social discontent and general disconnection) into a series of self-organized artist projects that merges the exterior and interior public spaces of City of Santa Monica property. 18th Street Airport Campus at Santa Monica Municipal Airport will be the site where artists reimagine the city and beyond in the midst of complex social unrest globally. Recovery Justice will recuperate through various means the digital and physical footprints left in a city that struggles to reclaim the seemingly peaceful environment it once had. Artists will develop a palette for making and sharing artworks responding to the street experience in safe, healing and expressive modes. This porous series is a point of departure to reconcile and redefine the concept of justice.

This collage of self-organized artist projects was organized around the common theme of Recovery Justice, facilitated as part of Sara Daleiden’s artist project and ongoing conversations nurtured through a series of online conversations with 18th Street’s artist community called “Creative Roundtables” over the past 8 months. These projects will manifest in outdoor presentations on the side of the building; sculptural, photographic, painting and video work in the galleries; and a series of online and drive-in events in Spring of 2021. The artists’ presentations will also be represented online and via a 360 tour for virtual viewing.”

Participating artists include: Sara Daleiden, Nicola Goode, Susie McKay Krieser, Marcus Kuiland-Nazario, M Susan Broussard, Lionel Popkin, Yrneh Gabon Brown, Lola del Fresno, Debra Disman, Melinda Smith Altshuler, Gregg Chadwick, Luciana Abait, Deborah Lynn Irmas, Rebecca Youssef, and Dan S. Wang.

Sara Daleiden’s residency and facilitation work on these projects is generously supported by the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. Bailiwik is also a supporting partner on this exhibition.

ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
(such a joy working with Sara)
Sara Daleiden is a Los Angeles-based artist who facilitates civic engagement within developing landscapes, exercising arts and cultural exchange strategies. She encourages local cultures to value neighborhoods, public space, civic art, land and racial and gender equity. Sara has an expertise in working with artists and other cultural entrepreneurs for civic engagement, creative placemaking, network development and small business development.

Her project at 18th Street Arts Center grows out of the placekeeping work that 18th Street has been engaged in over the past six years through our cultural asset mapping project (culturemapping90404.org) and the Commons Lab, which involves community voices to define, center, and connect cultural practices within their own neighborhoods. Her practice investigates the influence of location, scale, market, values and other regional factors on the production of the arts and cultural identity. Through methodologies involving partnership mapping, network building, and the facilitation of self-organizing and advocacy, Sara aims to enhance the advocacy power of artists in influencing neighborhood development in the city. Her durational engagement with 18th Street will spin off land-based activations with opportunities for neighbors, artists, city staff, and the broader public to participate. Sara has been collaborating with arts workers Nicola Goode, Susannah Laramee Kidd, Dorit Cypis and Kimberli Meyer for this artist project.

Pictured is  “Womb”, 2021, (plastic, canvas, jute cord) and “I Smile At You With My Eyes”, 2021, cardboard, magazine pages, acrylic paint, 

RECOVERY JUSTICE: Being Well

By

I am thrilled to participate in:

RECOVERY JUSTICE: Being Well

March 8, 2021 – July 16, 2021
at
18th Street Arts Center (Airport Campus)

“Being Well” is what we seek together as neighbors, and recalls one of the central guiding principles of the City of Santa Monica, the notion of “wellbeing” as key to civic health. Recovery Justice: Being Well, aims to highlight the recent circumstances that have evolved during the pandemic (racial justice demonstrations and destruction, as well as social discontent and general disconnection) into a series of self-organized artist projects that merges the exterior and interior public spaces of City of Santa Monica property. 18th Street Airport Campus at Santa Monica Municipal Airport will be the site where artists reimagine the city and beyond in the midst of complex social unrest globally. Recovery Justice will recuperate through various means the digital and physical footprints left in a city that struggles to reclaim the seemingly peaceful environment it once had. Artists will develop a palette for making and sharing artworks responding to the street experience in safe, healing and expressive modes. This porous series is a point of departure to reconcile and redefine the concept of justice.

This collage of self-organized artist projects was organized around the common theme of Recovery Justice, facilitated as part of Sara Daleiden’s artist project and ongoing conversations nurtured through a series of online conversations with 18th Street’s artist community called “Creative Roundtables” over the past 8 months. These projects will manifest in outdoor presentations on the side of the building; sculptural, photographic, painting and video work in the galleries; and a series of online and drive-in events in Spring of 2021. The artists’ presentations will also be represented online and via a 360 tour for virtual viewing.”

Participating artists include: Sara Daleiden, Nicola Goode, Susie McKay Krieser, Marcus Kuiland-Nazario, M Susan Broussard, Lionel Popkin, Yrneh Gabon Brown, Lola del Fresno, Debra Disman, Melinda Smith Altshuler, Gregg Chadwick, Luciana Abait, Deborah Lynn Irmas, Rebecca Youssef, and Dan S. Wang.

Sara Daleiden’s residency and facilitation work on these projects is generously supported by the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. Bailiwik is also a supporting partner on this exhibition.

ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
(such a joy working with Sara)
Sara Daleiden is a Los Angeles-based artist who facilitates civic engagement within developing landscapes, exercising arts and cultural exchange strategies. She encourages local cultures to value neighborhoods, public space, civic art, land and racial and gender equity. Sara has an expertise in working with artists and other cultural entrepreneurs for civic engagement, creative placemaking, network development and small business development.

Her project at 18th Street Arts Center grows out of the placekeeping work that 18th Street has been engaged in over the past six years through our cultural asset mapping project (culturemapping90404.org) and the Commons Lab, which involves community voices to define, center, and connect cultural practices within their own neighborhoods. Her practice investigates the influence of location, scale, market, values and other regional factors on the production of the arts and cultural identity. Through methodologies involving partnership mapping, network building, and the facilitation of self-organizing and advocacy, Sara aims to enhance the advocacy power of artists in influencing neighborhood development in the city. Her durational engagement with 18th Street will spin off land-based activations with opportunities for neighbors, artists, city staff, and the broader public to participate. Sara has been collaborating with arts workers Nicola Goode, Susannah Laramee Kidd, Dorit Cypis and Kimberli Meyer for this artist project.

Pictured is “drift”, a collaboration between myself, and esteemed 18th Street colleague and artist, Luciana Abait.

More To Come!!!