Debra Disman

Artist

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Contemporary Art

BRAND 53 Celebrates PAPER in its many forms

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I am thrilled to have my artists’ book, “THIN ICE” made in collaboration with artist Luciana Abait, shown in Brand 53: Annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper

Opening Date: July 19, 2025
Closing Date: September 12, 2025

The Associates of Brand Library & Art Center in Glendale, California hosts its 53rd Annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper this summer. All works in the show are on view in the beautiful Brand Library’s Gallery and in both printed and online exhibition catalogs. 

This year’s juror, Sigrid Burton, considers color and drawing as the foundation of her artistic practice and is noted for her works in oil on canvas or linen and mixed media on paper. She explores the natural world both literally and figuratively, with the intention of making light and depth tangible and visible on a two-dimensional picture plane. Burton captures the phenomenological occurrence of reflection and refraction of light, in particular, water, sky and deep space. Her studies of the art of the Indian subcontinent and its ancient and sophisticated aesthetic theory have influenced her thinking that the importance of a work of art is the response that the work evokes from the viewer. Within this context, color is understood to have great expressive and communicative power.

The Brand Associates is offering a printed exhibition catalog for purchase at Brand Library & Art Center.
A digital version of the catalog is also available to download for free.

View the Online CATALOG HERE!
Please see a video of show HERE with a talk by Juror Sigrid Burton

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!

EXHIBITIONISTA: BRAND 53: National Juried Show of Works on Paper

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I am thrilled to have my artists’ book, “THIN ICE” made in collaboration with artist Luciana Abait, shown in Brand 53: Annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper   

Opening Date: July 19, 2025 

The Associates of Brand Library & Art Center in Glendale, California host its 53rd Annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper this summer. All works in the show will be on view in the beautiful Brand Library’s Gallery and in both printed and online exhibition catalogs. 

This year’s juror, Sigrid Burton, considers color and drawing as the foundation of her artistic practice and is noted for her works in oil on canvas or linen and mixed media on paper. She explores the natural world both literally and figuratively, with the intention of making light and depth tangible and visible on a two-dimensional picture plane. Burton captures the phenomenological occurrence of reflection and refraction of light, in particular, water, sky and deep space. Her studies of the art of the Indian subcontinent and its ancient and sophisticated aesthetic theory have influenced her thinking that the importance of a work of art is the response that the work evokes from the viewer. Within this context, color is understood to have great expressive and communicative power.

The Brand Associates will be offering a printed exhibition catalog for purchase at Brand Library & Art Center.
A digital version of the catalog is also available to download for free.

View the Online CATALOG HERE!
Please see a video of show HERE with a talk by Juror Sigrid Burton
​​

TAG: The 2025 LA OPEN

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The Artists Gallery (TAG) Presents:
The L.A. Open 2025
JOIN US:
Wednesday, January 8 through Friday, January 24
Awards Reception: Saturday, January 11th, 2025, 5 – 8 pm

TAG and the L.A. Open celebrate art and creativity in Los Angeles County!

I am thrilled to show two works in this fun and fantastic annual show!

“The Body Politic: Black and Gold“, 2024, 8.5 x 23 x 7″, book board, paint, canvas, metal leaf, lace, cord, netting, trim, beads


“Hopes and Fears and…”, 2020, 24.5 x 16.25″, textile samples, linen thread

JUROR: Genie Davis
Genie Davis is a writer who loves and writes about art as well as a wide range of other subjects as a journalist, biographer, novelist, and WGA-W screen and television writer. You can see her written work in the arts on her own www.diversionsLA.com as well as in past publications of Artillery, Art & Cake, Art Scene, Fabrik, and Riot Material.
She is the curator of 2023’s Leaving Eden, a two-person thematic exhibition at Keystone Art Space; September 2024’s Thresholds, a small group exhibition at Gallery of Hermosa; and upcoming in March 2025, the international exhibition Windswept at Wonzimer Gallery.

MORE INFO HERE!

 

White & Texture & Paper & Fiber

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I am thrilled to be participating in two show on opposite coasts which aim to share artworks that center on some of my specific interest in artmaking.

“White & Texture” at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod:
“Subtitled Monochrome Unity, we invited artists to explore the profound subtleties and striking complexities of using white as the driving color and how texture within the white and informs the execution and the narrative of an artwork. We wanted them to explore the effect of this limitation – without a “conventional” color palette.”

“White Zip”

“Paper & Fiber: Fourth Annual Show” at 1202 Contemporary in Gilroy, California:
“1202 Contemporary proudly presents its 4th annual Paper + Fiber show, celebrating two mediums that women artists have traditionally used for centuries, but have always been considered “craft,” or less than fine art.  Uplifting and supporting artists who have worked in textile, fiber, and/or paper mediums, this exhibition centers and hones in on the theme of figure.”

“Into The Bush”

“Profusion”

Art Centers and the Like: The HeART of Art

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Art and Cultural Centers are amazing places.

They are CENTERS. Centers of art and culture to be sure, but also centers of learning, personal and collective growth, education, care, community, cooperation and love.

Amazing to show in, but especially amazing in the services they provide, the opportunities they offer and the roles they play for their near and far communities.

I am going to explore these worthy and precious resources and entities in the next few posts, but firstly, I need to get my arms around them in a big, collective heARTfelt hug!

I will add to, or write further interactions of this post over time.  I would also like to write about Libraries, College and University Art Galleries and smaller galleries as exhibition spaces and hubs of community and world culture.

These are the art and cultural centers I have shown in over the last few years, essentially since 2018:
(I included some very special organizations such as Blue Roof Studios, Shoebox Arts and ArtShare LA in Los Angeles, CA, “We Are The Arts”/The Arts Council of Fayetteville|Cumberland County in Fayetteville, NC, the Hera Educational Foundation and Gallery in Wakefield RI, and the Springfield Art Association, in Springfield, IL, even though they don’t have the word “CENTER” in their monikers, as I believe they serve many of the same heART-FULL functions as those that do.)

18th Street Arts Center,  Santa Monica, CA

O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA

Webster Arts, Webster Groves, MO

Intersect Arts Center, Saint Louis, MO

The Dairy Barn Arts Center O’Bleness Gallery, Athens, OH

Umpqua Valley Arts, Roseville, OR

 The Cultural Center of Cape Cod, South Yarmouth, MA

Springfield Art Association, Springfield, IL

The Korean Culture Center, Los Angeles, CA

“We Are The Arts”/The Arts Council of Fayetteville|Cumberland County, Fayetteville, NC

Artworks Center for Contemporary  Art, Loveland, CO

ArtShare LA, Los Angeles, CA

Shoebox Arts, Los Angeles, CA

Kelso Art Center, University of Incarnate Word, San Antonio, TX

Tubac Center for the Arts, Tubac, AZ

Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA

The Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine, CA
  
The Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, Lubbock, TX

Hera Educational Foundation and Gallery in Wakefield RI

Blue Roof Studios, Los Angeles, CA

San Francisco Center for the Book, San Francisco, CA

The Center for Contemporary Art, Bedminister, NJ

Yeiser Art Center, Paducah, KY

Brand Library and Art Center, Glendale, CA

The Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN;

Foothills Art Center, Golden, CO