Debra Disman

Artist

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Contemporary Art

EXHIBITIONISTA: TEXT/MESSAGE with Shoebox Projects

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“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.”  —Kristine Schomaker 

Curated by Kristine Schomaker 

View the Show HERE

See and hear the Artists Talk/Exhibition “Walkthrough” HERE

Participating Artists: Stephen Anderson, Melanie Antuna Hewitt, Lisa Bahouth, Hazel Batrez, Chavez Fred Becker, Sheri Lynn Behr, Greg Blair, Renee Bott, Austin Brady, Marie Brix Tyler Brumfield, Nikyra Capson, Isabella Cardim, Andrée Carter, Lisa Cooperman, Ian Cross, Steven Dick, Debra Disman, Zahra Fard, Margaret Jo Feldman, Pennie Fien, Karen Fiorito, Martin Gantman, Candice Greathouse, Briena Harmening, Gigi Janko, Karen Ruth Karlsson, Judi Krew, Tom Lasley, Linda Litteral, Bachrun LoMele Gina M, Lori Markman, Monica R Marks, Beatrice (Bea) Antonie Martino, Nancy McDearmon, Katie Mead, Jennie E. Park, Dan Ragland, E. Y. Reilly, Christopher Taylor, Maria Trunk, Sean Tyler, Caro Volny, Daggi Wallace, Jack Weaver, David E. Weed, Isabel Winson-Sagan, Lorraine Woodruff-Long, Darlyn Susan Yee

EXHIBITIONISTA: “In Tandem” at the Cape Cod Museum of Art

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I am thrilled to be participating in the exhibition, “In Tandem“, at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, with artist and collaborator Luciana Abait, through our  work, “drift”, a collaborative artist’ book which serves as a warning about environmental damage and ecological devastation.

For this year’s CCMoA International, Juried Exhibition, we asked artists to interpret the theme “In Tandem” in a visual work of art.
“In Tandem” may be defined as the process of 2 or more objects, mechanisms, people or concepts working in conjunction with each other to achieve a desired result.
The response was record-breaking with 283 artists from 30 states across the USA as well as from Canada, England and China submitting 424 artworks for this competition. Only 85 artworks were selected by juror. 3 of the artists will receive awards for their pieces during the Opening Reception and Gallery Talk on Friday, May 19, 2023.
 In Tandem is sponsored by Bob and Cathey Portrie.

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Friday, May 19, 2023
Gallery Talk with the Artists: 4pm – 5pm
Opening Reception: 5pm – 6:30pm
Free and open to the public • RSVPs appreciated!

ArtShare LA Shares A Common Thread

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I am honored be a part of ArtShare LA’s exhibition, “A COMMON THREAD“,  a 13-woman exhibition featuring fiber-based and textile works of art exploring autobiography and social critique, connection and displacement interlinked through themes of history and memory.


The show was curated by ArtShare LA Executive Director Beth Stryker and Visual Arts manager Baha H Danesh.



Each artist’s works are exhibited together, creating specific artistic spaces for visitors to peruse.


I am thrilled to have four works in the show.


ArtShare LA Executive Director Beth Stryker chats with exhibition designer extraordinaire, Stacie B. London.


Exhibiting artist Doris Bittar and friend.


Enjoying the exhibition.


Baha and I celebrating!

Please view a fabulous film of the show by Eric Minh Swenson HERE


The exhibition runs April 1 – May 13…so come on by and enjoy the show!

Fantastical….2022!

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I am honored to be participating in FANTASTIC FIBERS, (2022), an international juried exhibition that seeks to showcase a wide range of outstanding works related to the fiber medium. It was a wonderful experience to be a part of FANTASTIC FIBERS 2021, and i very much look forward to seeing (albeit online) all the works in this year’s show!

One of Yeiser Art Center’s most engaging, innovative & colorful international exhibits, Fantastic Fibers is an inspirational must-see for fine artists, quilters and textile art enthusiasts across the globe. The exhibition is comprised of contemporary and innovative works created with fiber as the primary medium or concept

The show began in 1987 as a wearable art show but has evolved over the years to include a compelling mix of traditional and non-traditional works created from natural or synthetic fibers, and work that addresses the subject or medium of fiber.

View a video of the show here!

JUROR: Matt Collinsworth
Matt Collinsworth became the new CEO of the National Quilt Museum during the summer of 2021.  Matt attended Georgetown College in central Kentucky and received his MFA from Ohio State.  He has been directing nonprofit organizations since 1998 and museum’s and other cultural organizations since 2003.  Matt has served as Director of the Kentucky Folk Art Center, Senior Director of Cultural Outreach at Morehead State University, Interim Director of the Lexington Art League, and Director of the National Music Museum.  Matt has curated and co-curated dozens of exhibitions that have appeared at museums and galleries across the country, including national and international traveling shows. He also produced numerous major exhibition catalogs, overseen large cultural events, and led several facility renovation projects. Matt lives in Paducah’s Lowertown Arts District with his wife, Kelly, his son, Eli, and (when she’s home from college) his daughter, Brynn.

I am especially thrilled to be showing “Excavation of the Interior”, a work completed in 2021, made of wood, mulberry paper, watercolor paper, muslin, canvas, hemp cord and linen thread.



Artist Amy Usdin photographs the show!


Exterior/Closed


Interior/Open


Interior/Detail


Exterior/Closed


Exterior/Spine-Back

EXPO 41 at B.J. Spokes Gallery

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I am thrilled to be included in:


a virtual exhibition of the b.j. spoke gallery

The show was juried by Sewon Kang, Archivist at The Easton/Bourgeois Archive, formerly Curatorial Assistant at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, who selected the work of 15 artists. I am honored to be included in this roster of stunning creative makers.

Artists and their selected works can be viewed below. Enjoy

David Acquistapace, Saint Louis, MO
Kat Alyst, Austin, TX
Neville Barbour, Silver Spring, MD
Matthew Barton, New Orleans, LA
Kimberlyn Bloise, Edinboro, PA
Stephen Delaney, Middleton, MA
Debra Disman, Los Angeles, CA		 Eriko Kobayashi, Carbondale, IL
Anthony Adonis Lewis, Ashland, OR
Kambel Smith, Philadelphia, PA
Karen Theisen, Santa Fe, NM
Amy Usdin, Mendota Heights, MN
Jae Yun Yi, Seoul Korea
Dier Zhang, Brooklyn, NY
Foad Seyed Mohammadi, Gainesville FL

I am showing:
Excavation of the Interior, 2021, 12 x 28 x 12.5″, mixed media (wood, canvas, muslin, mulberry paper, hemp cord, linen thread, watercolor paper)

and
Forest Through The Trees, 2021, 15 x 42 x 12″, mixed media (book board, acrylic paint, hemp cord, wood, canvas, typewriter tape, lace, watercolor paper)

ARTIST STATEMENT                                              
 I work in the form of the book, in forms evoked by the book, and in multidimensional media of my own devising. Both as a solo practitioner and in the public sphere of community engagement I push the body and boundaries of the book into new media, materials and meanings to invite altered ways of viewing the world and how we inhabit it. Although much of the work continues to relate to loose definitions of the book as structure, it is moving into other sculptural and conceptual realms where devotion to material labor and a passion for the haptic become powerful motivators and themes. I am fascinated by the parallels between books and buildings in terms of architecture, meaning and utility. Each constructs public and private spaces where stories are “read” on many levels, often revealing more than their makers ever intended. My work seeks to offer places of contemplation, solace and bafflement, while instigating exploration, investigation and examination of what we think we know, and are.

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The Center for Contemporary Art 2022 International Juried Show

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I am thrilled to participate in the Center for Contemporary Art’s 

International Juried Exhibition

showing “Maximum Security”
made of Book Board, Wood, Mulberry Paper, Paint, Canvas, Watercolor Paper, Hemp Cord

EXHIBITION DATES: January 14, 2022 – February 26, 2022
Opening: Friday, January 14, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. via Zoom

JUROR: Erin Jenoa Gilbert
Erin Jenoa Gilbert is a New York based curator and art advisor, specializing in Modern and Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora. Exploring the relationship between art, power and politics, her curatorial practice examines the physical and psychological connection to land, the trauma of displacement and the Black female body as contested terrain. Gilbert’s intersectional critical analysis exposes the fault lines in the aesthetic regimes that dominate visual culture, specifically by presenting artists whose contributions to the canon have been overlooked, particularly women artists from the “Deep South” and the “Global South”. Most recently the Curator of African American Manuscripts at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, she has also held positions at The Art Institute of Chicago and The Studio Museum in Harlem.

Over the course of her career she has addressed audiences at The Studio Museum in Harlem, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Howard University, Fashion Institute of Technology and Swann Auction House. Figure and Force, a conversation she moderated between Barbara Chase Riboud and Ilyasah Shabbaz for Solange’s Saint Heron, exemplifies her commitment to expanding the audience for modern and contemporary art.

In July 2021, Gilbert curated A Force For Change, an exhibition presenting 26 contemporary women artists of African descent in New York benefiting UN Women. She is the co-curator of Mary Lovelace O’Neal: Whales Fucking which will open at MoAD in San Francisco, California in November 2022. Since 2015 she has curated several museum and gallery exhibitions in the US and UK including Zohra Opoku: Draped Histories/Beyond Visage, Sienna Shields: Invisible Woman and In The Eye of the Beholder.

Gilbert holds a BA in Political Science and a BA in African and African American Studies from the University of Michigan, and a MA in Contemporary Art from the University of Manchester.  She has published catalog essays on several prominent artists, including Deborah Roberts (Spelman University, 2018); Alma Thomas (Mnuchin Gallery, 2019); Chakaia Booker (ICA Miami, 2021) and Mary Lovelace O’Neal (MoAD, 2022).

Click Here to Read Erin Jenoa Gilbert’s Juror Statement

I am honored to be in the company of wonderful EXHIBITING ARTISTS: Joan Appel, Claude Beller, Bill Brookover, Monica J. Brown, Lionel Carre, Arden Cone, Steven Daiber, Tracy DiTolla, Marvin Eans, Steven Epstein, Tracy Finn, Sandy Furst, Anita Gladstone, Gregory Hennen, Valerie Huhn, Pat Kelly, Karen L. Kirshner, Jack Knight, Shawn Marshall, Monica Mendes, Edward Mills, Myra Joyce Nowlin, David Z. Orban, Clare Parry, Sandi Pfeifer, Robert Reid, Lilly Saywitz, Alireza Vaziri Rahimi, Mark Vogel, Chrissy Wallace

Click Here for Exhibition Price List

ENJOY THE SHOW HERE!