Debra Disman

Artist

Contemporary Artist

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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NEW WORK in 2021: “Forest Through The Trees”

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I was happy to finally be able to have Elon Schoenholz Photography in to photograph works completed during 2021… fast away the old year passes…

Here I share “Forest through The Trees“, 15 x 42 x 12”, made of book board, canvas, hemp cord, ribbon, typewriter ribbon, acrylic paint, wood.
It is part of a monochrome series in black, through the colors of “black” are infinite, and change with light, material, juxtaposition, and how the viewer engages with the piece.

Comprised of two accordion-folded “spines”, the “book”, becomes a “box”, with a “door” that opens, expandable “walls”, and  painted canvas “pages” held up precariously with wooden dowels. The piece can be presented and contemplated in numerous ways, and begs a tactile connection, through all of us working in book, and perhaps sculptural forms in general grapple with how to do this.  How to have viewers engage with the work, participate in it, without having it worn away over time in the process…

We are seekers.
The Journey continues.

Happy New Year.

(exterior, closed)

(exterior, ajar)

(interior/exterior, open)

EXHIBITIONISTA: EXPO 41 at B.J. Spokes Gallery

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I am thrilled to be included in:

EXPO 41, a virtual exhibition of the b.j. spoke gallery

Juror: Sewon Kang,  Archivist at The Easton/Bourgeois Archive in NYC. Formerly she served as Curatorial Assistant at the Museum of Modern Art.

 The Opening Reception will be held on ZOOM – Saturday, March 5th at 7:00pm (EST).

To Attend, Please REGISTER HERE!

View the show HERE!

NEW WORK in 2021: Red Notebook (“Here’s To The Red, White and Blue”)

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I was happy to finally be able to have Elon Schoenholz Photography in to photographs works completed/created during 2021, which continues to race by.

Part of an ensemble, suite, or installation of works entitled, “Here’s To The Red, White and Blue”, Red Notebook is structured as a “traditional” codex, with covers that open and pages that turn.  Moderately, “red” (hence the “red” element of the “Red, White and Blue” theme-meme-trope?) it contains a great deal of black as well.
In the immortal words of  Mark Rothko, “There is only one thing I fear in life, my friend;  One day, the black will swallow the red.”

Made from a repurposed placemat, hemp cord, linen thread, canvas, and lace, it is 8.5″ high, 12.5″ when opened in full, and 6.5″ at greatest depth and opens left to right, from cover through pages to cover, bound together through a single signature.


The red and back play off each other in all their associations


Sewing, stitching, gluing, knotting, coiling, massing


Amassing, accumulation, the RED in


Up next.