Debra Disman

Artist

Eva Hesse

EXHIBITIONISTA: “I Can’t I Won’t I Will I Do” SOLO SHOW

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 “I Can’t I Won’t I Will I Do”

ReflectSpace presents:
DEBRA DISMAN: I Can’t I Won’t I Will I Do
January 18 – March 19, 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 28th, 6-8pm
Curators: Ara & Anahid Oshagan

ReflectSpace in Glendale, run by  Ara Oshagan, presents new work by artist Debra Disman. Along with the exhibition, ReflectSpace is publishing an artists’ book based on Disman’s 2021-22 Santa Monica Artist Fellowship project, investigating linking and responding to the groundbreaking work of artist Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse which will be available at the opening. For more information, please visit HERE.

 

EXHIBITIONISTA: “I Can’t I Won’t I Will I Do’ Solo Show at ReflectSpace Gallery

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I am thrilled to have a solo exhibition at ReflectSpace Gallery, part of Glendale Arts and Culture, opening Saturday January 28th and on view through March 19,2023.
Curated by the wonderful Ara and Anahid Oshagan of Glendale.

The title of the show is based on a work of the same name:
“I Can’t I Won’t I Will I Do”, 2022, 13 x 71.5″,  repurposed table runner, paint, hemp cord and linen thread

Love to See You There!!!!

Stand, Sit, Hang, Lay….Works Exhibited This and That Way (More)

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I am fascinated by the many ways in which works can be shown. Here are a few…



“Finally and Just for a Minute“, 2022, hanging from the ceiling in my studio at 18th Street Art Center (Olympic Campus) in Santa Monica, CA. (Canvas, burlap, hemp cord, acrylic paint, ribbon) (Pictured, the Los Angeles-based artist Randi Matushevitz)


“Rent Wound Tear, Mend Heal Repair”, 2022,  hanging on wall in slight relief, in the exhibition “Collective Acts of Peace” at the 18th Street Art Center Airport Campus  Slipstream Gallery in Santa Monica, CA. (Canvas, string, hemp cord, lace, acrylic paint)



“Womb”, 2020, hanging from the ceiling in 18th Street Art Center’s Slipstream Gallery, in my studio at 18th Street Art Center’s Olympic Campus, Santa Monica, CA, and in the Arts at Blue Roof Summer Festival,  in the “Please Touch” exhibition at Blue Roof Studios in South Los Angeles. (Plastic hula hoop, raw canvass, jute cord)


“Unfolding Possibilities“, 2021,  on pedestal in the exhibition “Recovery Justice: Being Well“,  at the 18th Street Art Center Airport Campus  Slipstream Gallery
in Santa Monica, CA. (Mulberry paper, sewing thread, gold thread)


“Chromatic Interactions: The Golden Thread“, 2020, hanging on the wall in my studio at 18th Street Art Center (Olympic Campus) in Santa Monica, CA.
(file cards, sewing thread, gold thread,  markers, crayons, pencils)

CONCURRENCIES: Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse: The Visitors

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On June 25th, 2022 I held an open studio to share works created for my 2021-22 Santa Monica Artist Project Fellowship:

Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse: Genius, Trauma and the Invention of New Forms of Visual Art in Response to the Holocaust

Employing research, artistic production, public engagement, the project investigates, compares and links the lives and the groundbreaking work of Jewish women artists Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse on the basis of their shared experience of trauma and loss through the Jewish Holocaust, the remarkably similar intimate traumas of their families (both lost their mothers to suicide), their invention of new forms of visual art through which I posit they respond to and attempt to cope with these traumas,  their early deaths, and the emotional involvement of each with a charismatic and powerful male artist who proved to be influential, even pivotal in the development of their work and artistic/creative breakthroughs.

Themes of the project include being a woman artist, being a Jewish women artist, being an artist during or affected by a profoundly turbulent time in history, the relationship between internal and external turbulence and the creative act and the transformative power of the creative process:  the triumph of the imagination as opposed to the triumph of the will.

On a broader scale, the project examines, through these two geniuses, ways in which the creative process can transform traumatic pasts, and how trauma can elicit the creation of new forms, voices and materials that outlast their makers and continue to reverberate throughout the ages, inspiring posterity.

As part of my Fellowship project commitment, I created a series of works responding to these artists: their oeuvre, their lives, their concurrencies. I was thrilled to welcome friends, colleagues and students to share the works and say hello!  (All images by Steve Hankins Photography)

 




Thank you all, and thank you Steve Hankins, for your beautiful photography and capturing of the event.

CONCURRENCIES: Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse: The Works

By

On June 25th, 2022 I held an open studio to share works created for my 2021-22 Santa Monica Artist Project Fellowship:

Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse: Genius, Trauma and the Invention of New Forms of Visual Art in Response to the Holocaust

Employing research, artistic production, public engagement, the project investigates, compares and links the lives and the groundbreaking work of Jewish women artists Charlotte Salomon and Eva Hesse on the basis of their shared experience of trauma and loss through the Jewish Holocaust, the remarkably similar intimate traumas of their families (both lost their mothers to suicide), their invention of new forms of visual art through which I posit they respond to and attempt to cope with these traumas,  their early deaths, and the emotional involvement of each with a charismatic and powerful male artist who proved to be influential, even pivotal in the development of their work and artistic/creative breakthroughs.

Themes of the project include being a woman artist, being a Jewish women artist, being an artist during or affected by a profoundly turbulent time in history, the relationship between internal and external turbulence and the creative act and the transformative power of the creative process:  the triumph of the imagination as opposed to the triumph of the will.

On a broader scale, the project examines, through these two geniuses, ways in which the creative process can transform traumatic pasts, and how trauma can elicit the creation of new forms, voices and materials that outlast their makers and continue to reverberate throughout the ages, inspiring posterity.

As part of my Fellowship project commitment, I created a series of works responding to these artists: their oeuvre, their lives, their concurrencies, some of which I share here: (All images by Steve Hankins Photography)

Working title: “Concurrencies I“, 2022, repurposed denim, linen thread, gold thread, hemp cord, varnish


Working title: “Concurrencies II“, begun, 2022 (unfinished), repurposed denim, linen thread, gold thread, varnish , to be developed


Working title, “Finally“, 2022, canvas, burlap, acrylic paint, hemp cord


Working title, “Finally“, 2022, canvas, burlap, acrylic paint, hemp cord, (details)


“I Can’t I Won’t I will I Do“, 2022, repurposed cotton table runner, hemp cord, acrylic paint


“It’s Not Black and White“, 2021, Bookboard, mulberry paper, repurposed typewriter tape, canvas, hemp cord, (exterior)


“It’s Not Black and White“, 2021, Bookboard, mulberry paper, repurposed typewriter tape, canvas, hemp cord, (exterior/interior)


“Forest Through The Trees“, 2021, bookboard, hemp cord, watercolor paper, acrylic paint, wood, canvas, repurposed typewriter tape, lace, (exterior)


“Forest Through The Trees“, 2021, bookboard, hemp cord, watercolor paper, acrylic paint, wood, canvas, repurposed typewriter tape, lace, (detail)


Working title: “Charlotte Salomon-Eva Hesse: Concurrencies“, 2022, repurposed family album, burlap, linen thread, collage/paper,  (exterior)