Debra Disman

Artist

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Artist Talk

EXHIBITIONISTA: “CARE” at Hera Gallery

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Hera Gallery proudly presents CARE, a national juried exhibition exploring the concept of care through the eyes of artists from around the country.

Works selected by Priya N. Green, Artist, Painting Faculty, Director of CCSU Chen Art Gallery

May 10th – June 14th, 2025

Opening Reception Saturday, May 10th, 6-8pm

Mix & Mingle: Arts & Health Thursday May 22nd, 6 -7:30pm

Virtual Artist Talk Thursday, May 29th, 7pm via Zoom

When you hear or read the word CARE…
Do you hear a noun, a verb, an imperative? Do you feel comforted, overwhelmed, or inspired by the sound and meaning of the word Care? 

Hera Gallery is interested in how we as artists and as society relate to the concept of care at this moment in time. 

From taking care and giving care to self-care, and the call to care –  the idea of care runs through all our lives from beginning to end. Human care, animal care, environmental care, or caring for an idea, a faith, a passion, a commitment. Care is associated with cultural connections, age, and gender. How is this shifting? How do we find balance when engaged in caregiving at all levels?

Artists respond to the question:
How does the word Care resonate with you, which images, stories, sentiments does it bring forth in you? Which role does care play in your life as an artist and in your artistic practice?

I am thrilled to share my triptych “RENT WOUND TEAR MEND HEAL REPAIR” 64 x 68 x .5″ (dimnesions variable), canvas, paint, hemp cord, string, lace, in this timely show

Artist Talks: The Conversation Between

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I have been fortunate to participate in numerous artist talks over the past several years, which have been illuminating in multiple ways, connecting with others, getting an insight into their work, sharing my own, furthering my experience in talking about it, reaching a wider “audience”.

Here are two of these talks, group conversations between artists, curator and facilitator, online through Zoom, sharing about specific works in specific exhibitions.

“Oh, Mother” Exhibition at The Hera Gallery
“Oh,  Mother” Artists Talk
“Oh, Mother” article

In the spring of 2022, Hera Gallery and Educational Foundation began to talk about our 50th anniversary as one of the first women-run artist cooperatives to open in the United States in 1974. Shortly after this discussion, the leak started to circulate that Roe v. Wade would be overturned before its own 50th feminist anniversary in 2023. The story came out around Mother’s Day. A group of us at Hera started to talk not only about the potential ramifications of the ruling, but also about motherhood itself. While frequently idealized in public discourse, we wanted to look at motherhood in all its complexity, as well as at the absence of desired motherhood. Throughout 2022 the abortion rights discussion swelled and ultimately burst into the Dobb's Decision. Hera’s conversation transitioned to ask, what happens now? Hera began looking for works which spoke to the overturn of Roe v. Wade in the virtual exhibition Objects of Agency, currently on view at heragallery.org. However, our conversation circled back to the bigger picture on the choice of motherhood. We wanted to hear voices not only from the perspective of mothers, but of all the people surrounding mothers and who could be mothers; including their children, partners, and even their parents. We were interested in the voices of mothers who were not born female cis gender, mothers who raise their children alongside other mothers, and everyone else who does not fit the traditional or stereotypical mother mold…..Nadiah Rivera Fella from the Cleveland Museum of Art (was)  juror for the show. Rivera Fella was part of the curatorial team of the 2021/2022 exhibition Picturing Motherhood Now at the Cleveland Museum of Art and thus made an excellent choice for a juror of Oh, Mother.

Participating Artists: Beizar Aradini, Sybil Archibald, Cassie Arnold, Raissa Bailey, Brandin Barón, Jasmine Best, Shweta Bist, Desirae Brown, Joanne Delmonico, Jessica Dietz, Debra Disman, Rebecca Ford, Raquel Fornasaro, Bonnie Jaffe, Marcella Kelley, Leah Klister, Moriah LeFebvre, Roberta Levitow, Madeleine Lord, Caroline McAuliffe, Haley Neville, Linda Plaisted, Sylvie Redmond, Sawyer Rose, Christina Santner, Ellen Shattuck Pierce, Leslie Sills.

“Text/Message” Exhibition
 “Text/Message” Artists Talk

Text/Message focuses on how we use text in fine art. Whether painting, sculpture, mixed media, video, digital, the use of text plays an integral part in telling stories. It can add a poetic layer, or a humorous anecdote. Text can challenge societal assumptions, activate our inner desires or crusade for long held beliefs. Text also lies.

Curated by Kristine Schomaker

ENJOY THE CONVERSATION!

“A Common Thread” Artist Talk at ArtShare LA

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I was thrilled to participate in the
A COMMON THREAD EXHIBITION ARTIST TALK
May 19 @ 6:00 pm at ArtShare LA!

I share my talk HERE.
Thank you ArtShare LA, for this opportunity.

About the exhibition:

Art Share L.A. proudly presents A Common Thread, an exhibition featuring fiber-based and textile works of art exploring autobiography and social critique, connection and displacement. The artworks in this exhibition are interlinked through themes of history and memory.
Featured artists include: Antoinette Adams, Amabelle Aguiluz, Doris Bittar, A. Laura Brody, Chloe Cusimano, Yasmine Nasser Diaz, Debra Disman, Carmen Mardonez, Carolyn Mason, Michelle Montjoy, Marie-Jose Njoku-Obi, Katie Shanks, Aneesa Shami Zizzo

 

The Book As Art, vol. 8: Infinity – ARTIST TALK!

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The Book As Art, vol.8: Infinity- Artist Talks

by Georgia Center for the Book
Free
October 28, 2020
7:00PM EST
4:00PM PST
Join us for an artist talk every Wednesday in October with artists featured in the 2020 Book As Art, vol.8: Infinity Exhibition.

About this Event

Join us for an artist showcase, featuring 5 artists’ who have pieces in the 2020 The Book as Art v.8: Infinity exhibition: Debra Disman (“Maximum Security”; “Prairie”), Christian Feneck (“The Unmade Room”), Julie Fordham (“The Dream”), Nicole Polonsky (“32xF”), and Chris Revelle (“Living Monuments”). For more information about their work, visit the catalogue for the exhibition here: Book As Art, vol.8: Infinity Catalogue

Debra Disman is a Los Angeles-based artist working primarily in the form of the book, both as a solo practitioner and in the public sphere of community engagement. As a maker and teaching artist she creates work and projects which push the boundaries of the book into new forms and materials. Her work is shown in museums, galleries, universities and libraries across the US including The Brand Library and Art Center in Glendale, CA, Craft Contemporary in LA, The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. Disman was the featured artist for the Big Read in LA in 2016; is the recipient of a WORD: Artist Grant / Bruce Geller Memorial Prize in 2016 to create “The Sheltering Book”, a life-sized book structure; and was commissioned by LA’s Craft Contemporary Museum to create an interactive book for their 2017 exhibition, “Chapters: Book Arts in Southern California.” She was a Studio Resident at the Camera Obscura Art Lab in 2018, and was awarded five Artist-in-Residence grants from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs since 2017 to work with the diverse Valley communities of LA.

Artist Christian Feneck combines his architectural training with painting, print, and installation art to create visual experiences of space using color. Feneck’s paintings explore the relationship of vision and the understanding of space by using architectural perspective conventions in combination with a layered series of translucent color fields.. Born in Massachusetts but raised primarily in Hawaii, California, and Florida, Feneck has resided in Fort Lauderdale since 2004. Feneck was a Visiting Professor of Architectural Design and Theory at Florida Atlantic University and participated in the FATVillage Artist Incubator Residency and the IS Projects Existent Books Residency programs. Feneck contributed to numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout South Florida as well as curated several installation art exhibitions.

Julie Fordham is a mixed media artist working in Atlanta, Ga. She attended Rhode Island School of Design where she studied Illustration. Julie’s work is a personal narrative. She uses plants, animals, and insects along with her figures to interpret the world and the people around her. She creates intuitively and enjoys experimenting with new materials. She loves tedium and contrast. The combination of rough texture with feminine details. Tons of miniscule stitches and lace. Bright colors with dark heavy feeling imagery. Words are added as a source of texture. Her work explores the symbolism tied to animals and plants and reframes them in a way that establishes her own visual vocabulary. She has shown around the city of Atlanta and Nashville, and participated in many shows at the Tannery Row Artist Colony in Buford.

Nicole Polonsky is a visual artist whose practice encompasses limited-edition prints, bookworks and multiples; drawing and unique object-making; writing; film, installations and performance. She also devises and produces group projects and exhibitions, and collaborates with other artists to realize cross-disciplinary ventures. Nicole gained her bachelor’s degree at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford, and master’s in Print at the Royal College of Art, London UK. She has shown extensively throughout her career. Recent exhibitions include lapse:re:lapse, MOCA London WE UK; Lighting Up Time, Northern Print and Side Cinema, Newcastle UK; A Pollock’s Gallimaufry, and The Contemporary Print, Flatbed Press and Gallery, Texas USA. In 2019 Nicole received an Arts Council England Project Grant for Lighting Up Time; she was shortlisted for the 2018 Flourish Award for Excellence in Printmaking and the 2016 Neo:Printprize .Nicole’s artworks are held in private collections internationally and public collections at Museum of Modern Art and Lafayette College; Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art,and the Victoria and Albert Museum, among others. Her work was featured in a number of publications including Creative Review, Art Monthly and Printmaking Today, as well as The Word is Art. Nicole lives and works in London, UK.

Chris Revelle is an interdisciplinary artist with a socially-engaged and research- based studio practice. Through the examination of history, language, and visual culture, Revelle’s work confronts the failures and abuses of social, political, and economic systems. The goal of his practice is to challenge public memory while inspiring discourse and empathy. Revelle has exhibited in the United States, Hong Kong, London, South Korea, and India. He was the recipient of the 2018 Idea Capital Grant and a finalist for the 2017 Hong Kong Human Rights Art Prize. Revelle has created work for United Nations organizations, and was formerly the Chair of Fine Arts at Savannah College of Art and Design, Hong Kong, and a Faculty Instructor of Painting and Drawing at Arizona State University. He earned his Master of Fine Arts from the School of Art at CalArts (California Institute of the Arts) in Valencia, CA.