Exhbitions

Swinging the Pendulum

January 24, 2025 By Debra Disman

I am thrilled to be part of:

The 14th Annual International Juried Exhibition – PENDULUM

February 12 – March 8, 2025

READ THE PRESS RELEASE!

The A.D. Gallery at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke presents an exhibition that shares varied interpretations of the theme, Pendulum.
Gains/losses, highs/lows, submerge/emerge…our human experience swings on a pendulum. While we all aim for homeostasis, the moments the pendulum swings are often when we feel the most alive, when we are called to act or react. In the past 20 years, we have faced major political, social, environmental, and personal shifts. These shifts have presented us with obstacles, challenges as well as moments for reinvention and emergence. This show presents works that visualize a swing in the pendulum, a life altering moment, a shift in the trajectory. Juror: Emily Beck considered works from a broad range of interpretations of this theme.

I am pleased to show: It’s Not Black and White, 2021, 9 x 22 x 7.5″, book board, canvas, paper, typewriter ribbon, hemp cord

Emily Scott Beck is an interdisciplinary artist and professor in the Department of Art, Art History and Design at the University of Notre Dame. Her work manipulates and re-contextualizes aspects of our identity that are often hidden within the layers of human communication and interaction. Using video, animation, photography, sculpture, fibers, installation, and sound, she captures experiences of emotional vulnerability, unrehearsed performances, gender construction, systems of belief, and women’s labor and leadership. A focus on art as a powerful tool for visual communication and social change is a common thread between her studio practice and her teaching. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the United States, including the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC, the South Bend Museum of Art in South Bend, IN, Elisabet Ney Museum in Austin Texas, and Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, IL

The A.D. Gallery is sponsored by the Art Department of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Serving the university and local community, the gallery provides a venue for student and faculty work, as well as that of local, regional, national and international artists. The gallery helps fulfill the department’s goal of providing outstanding educational opportunities for its students by bringing quality visual arts to the university and the community at large.

In the 1970s the faculty recognized a need for a permanent exhibition space and converted a faculty lounge into a gallery, which served the department for 30 years. In September 2005, the department announced the opening of its new exhibition space. The new A.D. Gallery features approximately 960 square feet of exhibition space, an upper register with a skylight, and the ability to display large-format work.

READ THE PRESS RELEASE!

Showing (love) Around

July 9, 2024 By Debra Disman

We Are Doing It All Wrong, Edward A. Dixon Gallery, Dayton, OH, Juror/Curator: Ed Dixon: “The exhibition is a challenge to artists and viewers to recognize, react and learn about the many ways humanity continually fails itself. These issues are not always mainstream and sometimes are hidden.” Jurors: Ed Dixon/Stacy Kranitz/Judith L. Huacuja
See the SHOW!
See the VIDEO!

It is not only a joy to “show around” in group exhibitions at various venues around the country, it is a gratifying, enriching experience, and a heartwarming one at that, to discover, interact with and support so many inspiring and dedicated individuals, organizations, endeavors, missions and visions. I meet new folks, but also “run into” friends and colleagues that “show up” in some of the same places: showing at some of the the same shows, sharing in some of the same artist talks and panels, featured in some of the same catalogues and publications. It is exciting to connect, and see both not only an overlap of interests materially and thematically, but also how we all approach things differently, and can learn from one another.

For example, I am currently showing at:
Word and Weft: Visualizing the Word, Webster Arts, Webster Groves, MO, Juror: Noriko Yuasa
Women. Defining Our Representation, Black House Artist, Juror/Curator: Ellen Mattesi (online)
We Are Doing It All Wrong, Edward A. Dixon Gallery, Dayton, OH, Jurors: Ed Dixon/Stacy Kranitz/Judith L. Huacuja
Evidence of Joy, Intersect Arts Center, Saint Louis, MO, Curator: April Parvitz
Soliloquy, presented by The Bridge Arts Foundation at The Scholarts Selection, San Gabriel, CA
Jurors: Charles Christopher Hill, Xin Song, Curator: Tia Xu
Whisper, Verum Ultimum Gallery, Portland, OR, Curator: Jennifer Gullia Cutshall (catalogue)
Interplay, presented by the Surface Design Association at The Dairy Barn Arts Center O’Bleness Gallery, Athens, OH,  Juror: Annet Couwenberg
Northern National Art Competition, Nicolet College Art Gallery, Rhinelander, WI, Juror: Debra Brehmer
The Circular Ritual of Spring, BG Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, Curator: Susan Lizotte (online)

And earlier this year:
Midway Marvels,ArtBarLA, Los Angeles, CA, Curator: Randi Matushevitz
Materiality Matters, Umpqua Valley Arts, Roseville, OR, Juror Panel: UVA Staff and Pacific NW professionals
Pulp: Book and Paper Arts, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA, Juror: Donna Seager
Fantastic Fibers 2024, Yeiser Art Center, Paducah, KY, Juror: Sandro Tiberi, (catalogue)
String Theory, The Cultural Center of Cape Cod, South Yarmouth, MA, Curator: Molly Demeulenaere
Art of the Word, Sasse Museum of Art, Pomona, CA, Jurors: Fatemeh Burnes, Maurice Quillinan, Niamh Cunningham (catalogue)
By the Book, Artopia Gallery, Arcadia, CA, Curator: Rosie Getz

Through this experience I am able to be exposed to and interact with :
Individuals: artists, curators, critics, collectors, gallery, museum, art center, library and academic/university directors/staff (on all different levels of responsibility and experience and in varying roles, offices and positions)
Organizations: galleries, museums, art centers, universities/academic institutions, artist studios and alternative spaces (of different sizes, renown, reputation, influence and “status” in the “art world” and world at-large)

I plan to highlight and share about various of these individuals and entities over the next several posts. I will share particularly about Art Centers, which are an enormous source of vitality, creation, care and joy throughout the country and beyond. xxxooo

I begin with Gallerist Ed Dixon, in whose show We Are Doing It All Wrong I am honored to be in. Presented at the Edward A. Dixon Galleryin Dayton, OH. Of the show says Owner/Curator: Ed Dixon: “The exhibition is a challenge to artists and viewers to recognize, react and learn about the many ways humanity continually fails itself. These issues are not always mainstream and sometimes are hidden.” The illustrious jurors Ed Dixon/Stacy Kranitz/Judith L. Huacuja hold a wealth of knowledge, expertise, care and passion among them in addition to many accomplishments.

In a time of such fraught difference, fear, and loathing, it is heartening and illuminating to see and be a part of all of these individuals and entities, making a difference. I have to feel that that all of our work, no matter what the outcome, does make a difference.

Thank you to You all.

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

August 31, 2022 By Debra Disman

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)

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

August 24, 2022 By Debra Disman

I have had the opportunity to participate in a number of exhibitions this year, and am fascinated by the many ways in which works can be shown…here are a few!

Table Top: my collaboration with artist Luciana Abait: “drift“, an accordion-fold artists’ book shown in the “ALL MEDIA 2022″ exhibition
at the Irvine Fine Arts Center.

“Excavation of the Interior“, shown in the “Fantastic Fibers 2022” exhibition at the Yeiser Art Center on a pedestal.

Two works shown in different ways in the “PULP: Paper and Book Arts” exhibition at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts:
“Prairie” shown on the postcard and website, and on a pedestal in the show,

and, “Before the Fall“, suspended from the ceiling in front of a wall!

Finally, “Burning Bush” displayed on a pedestal, on a stand, and under glass in the
“34th Annual McNeese National Works On Paper Exhibition” at McNeese State University.