Debra Disman

Artist

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Group Show

EXHIBITIONISTA: “NOMAD IV” at the Torrance Art Museum!

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TAM’s innovative contemporary art pop-up returns for its third year 

JULY 11-13, 2025

NOMAD IV is a non-commercial exhibition that showcases the diverse and dynamic talents of Southern California artists, helmed by TAM executive Director, the indefatigable, MAX PRESNEILL,  Los Angeles based artist and curator.
​Max Presneill  is the Director/Head Curator for the Torrance Art Museum.  He founded and is the Director of TRYST (2023-current), an international art fair for alternative galleries and artist-led initiatives. He is also part of the BLAM curatorial team, an international art festival showcasing artist-run initiatives from Berlin, Los Angeles and Mexico. He is Founder and a current member of Durden and Ray, an artist-run curatorial collaborative gallery in Los Angeles. He has extensive experience internationally as a curator having organized exhibitions for museums, institutes and galleries in the US and UK, the Netherlands, Japan, France, Mexico, China, Turkey, Australia, Germany, Austria, Norway and many more. His curatorial interests are with artist led projects, emerging art, new models for curatorial methodologies and an international scope for partnerships and exchanges.

Featuring sculpture, painting installation and more from 175+ artists from Southern California and beyond. NOMAD IV will be presented alongside the third edition of TRYST, TAM’s international alternative art fair for artist-run spaces and galleries.

NOMAD IV is a giant artistic get together. It is aimed at letting artists show what they have been making recently to each other as well as to the wider public. It is 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.

This year’s exhibition will once again take place at Del Amo Crossing in the heart of the South Bay region of Los Angeles located at 21535 Hawthorne Blvd, Torrance, CA 90503. The space itself features open plan concrete floors where we will present 150+ artists alongside the third edition of TRYST, an art fair for alternative galleries and artist run initiatives.

ADMISSION is FREE

Friday, July 11: VIP Opening – 4-6pm
Networking for participating artists 12:00-4:00pm

Saturday, July 12: Open 12-6pm

Sunday, July 13: Open 12-6pm
Panel discussions

 

 

 

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: “The California Effect: New Books from the California Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers”

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I am thrilled to have three works in:
“The California Effect: New Books from the California Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers”
Opening at the Long Beach Museum of Art October 4, 2025 and running through January 4, 2026!

The California Effect: New Books from the California Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers

October 4, 2025 – March 8, 2026

The California Effect—New Books from the California Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers is rich in both artists and bookworks. There are 29 artists exhibiting 54 books, boxes, and broadsides. Some are in limited editions and others are one-of-a-kind. All are handmade individually with handmade and fine papers, cloth, thread, glue, inks, and paint. What exactly is the California effect? More precisely, what is the effect on the many of us who live, work, and visit here? The misty mornings and baking hot afternoons? The endless coastline, chill forests or dry desert arroyos? Each of us has an answer, seen in the books we make, in our tastes and inspirations. We turn to making books: printing them, binding them, reinventing them, turning them into art—making books as art.

The California Chapter is one of ten chapters, revealing the national reach and scope of the Guild and its dedication to promoting interest and awareness in the tradition of book and paper arts. The members include hand bookbinders, design binders, conservators, calligraphers, makers of artist books, fine press printers and papermakers. A fully illustrated catalogue with information about each artwork and biographical information about each artist is available to order.

The California Effect exhibition and related programming are graciously supported by The Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation, the Pasadena Art Alliance, and the Bess J. Hodges Foundation

You can order the beautiful catalogue designed by artist Rebecca Chamlee of Pie in the Sky Press HERE and HERE

And… while you are there, don’t miss:
Voice of the Artist: Artist Books from the Permanent Collection

October 4, 2025 – March 8, 2026

Throughout its 75-year history, the Museum has presented contemporary art in all media, including the book arts. In 1983, the Museum organized At Home, an exhibition that included artists’ books by women created between 1970 and 1983. In 2009, Novel Constructions—Artists Create Monumental Books explored books as sculptural installations and included works by Genie Shenk and Carol Shaw-Sutton, both of whom are represented in the Ocean View Gallery. In 2019, the Museum presented The Artful Book of the California Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers, and it continues this tradition with The California Effect.

Voice of the Artist highlights a selection of artists’ books from the Museum’s permanent collection. It touches on the history of the medium, from the livre d’artiste exemplified by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, to contemporary offset-printed codex forms such as Barbara Kruger’s My Pretty Pony. Artists continue to expand the definition of the book through unconventional materials, like the tar paper in Genie Shenk’s Ring or the carved wood of Suvan Geer’s Author, Author? Unstill Poetry. The exhibition features a variety of forms, including traditional codex forms, accordion books, and a pop-up sculpture by Paul Johnson. The Museum gratefully acknowledges the generous support of a donor-collector Museum member, who anonymously provided both the exhibition and the video revealing more of the books’ interiors.

 

Long Beach Museum of Art
2300 E Ocean Blvd.

Member & VIP Opening Reception: 5-7 pm

General Admission Opening Reception: 7-9 pm

Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover

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I am thrilled to participate in “Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover” at the the Cultural Center of Cape Cod

February 3 @ 12:00 pm – March 1 @ 5:00 pm
Please join us for the opening reception  5-7PM February 7, 2025 at the
Cultural Center of Cape Cod, Inc. 307 Old Main Street South Yarmouth, MA 02664

“Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover“, is an evocative visual art exhibition designed to challenge our perceptions and invite us to look beyond the superficial. This engaging showcase, presented at the Cultural Center, features a variety of artists who use unexpected materials, surprising forms, and innovative techniques to question the initial impressions and judgments we often make.

Each piece in the collection serves as a metaphor for the complexity of identity and the hidden depths beneath external appearances. By juxtaposing the seen with the unseen, this exhibition encourages viewers to reconsider how they interpret not only art but each other in everyday life

Join us from February 3 – March 1, 2025, for a transformative journey that redefines what it means to truly ‘see.’

I am thrilled to show:
Red Notebook (Here’s To The Red, White and Blue), 8.5 x 12.5 x 6.5″, placemat, linen thread, hemp cord, cloth, wood

EXPO 44 at B.J. Spoke Gallery

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I am thrilled to participate in EXPO 44  presented online by B.J. Spoke Gallery.

Juror: Emily Olek is a Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Drawings and Prints at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Before joining MoMA, Emily was the Janet and Craig Duchossois Curatorial Research Assistant in Prints and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she worked on projects including Joseph E. Yoakum: What I Saw, Hairy Who? 1966-1969, and Lygia Pape: Tecelares. She also worked on exhibitions at the Chicago Cultural Center and the Pritzker Military Museum and Library. Emily recently completed her M.A. at the University of Illinois at Chicago with a concentration in American works on paper and holds a B.A. in Art History from Loyola University Chicago. Her Master’s Thesis entitled “So-Called “Outsiders”: A Case Against the Moniker” won UIC Graduate College’s 2022 Outstanding Thesis Award.

I have two large scale installations in the show. View my WORK  here!

View my WORK in the show here!

Reception will be Thursday, February 6, 2025, at 7:00pm (EST) via ZOOM. The reception will be recorded.
Everybody will be there:
Selected Artists! Juror! Gallery Members! Guests!
Register below and Zoom will send you a link to enter the reception.
JOIN US!
Register HERE for Expo Reception

Swinging the Pendulum

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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!