Debra Disman

Artist

  •

Textiles

EXHIBITIONISTA: “FIBER” at Silvermine Arts Center

By

I am thrilled to participate in FIBER:

This international exhibition seeks to showcase the best of contemporary fiber art that reflect the breadth of functional or non-functional works that use fiber and/or fiber art techniques in traditional or innovative ways. Artwork in this exhibition may be made from natural or high tech materials that reference fiber and that blur the lines between art, architecture and craft.

 Opening Reception on Saturday, May 17, 5-7pm

Curators:
Tom Grotta and Rhonda Brown

Tom and Rhonda have showcased modern fiber art since the 1980s, championing fiber art’s evolution and future. Representing over 100 artists from 25 countries, the gallery’s exhibitions, art fairs, and partnerships with museums have placed works in prestigious collections like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery. Tom, a Rochester Institute of Technology graduate, is renowned for his photography of fiber art and knowledge of contemporary textiles. Rhonda’s background as a lawyer and writer informs her editorial leadership at browngrotta arts. Rhonda oversees the gallery’s catalogs, blog, and social media, ensuring its continued influence in fiber art.

SEE THE SHOW HERE!
See My Work HERE!

I am honored to be showing with: (several of whom I know and have shown with before)

Becca Barolli – Bethlehem, CT     /     Eszter Bornemisza – Budapest, Hungary     /     Carolyn Carson – Pittsburgh, PA

Monica Carvalho – Rio de Janeiro , Brazil     /     Wan Lin Chang – Taichung City, Taiwan

Cheyenne Concepcion – San Francisco, CA     /     Jennifer Davies – Branford  , CT     /     Sherry Davis – Riverhead, NY

Ellen Dickinson – Roslyn Heights, NY     /     Debra Disman – Los Angeles, CA      /     Rosana Escobar – Bogota, CO

Sarah Haskell – York, ME     /     Elizabeth Joo – Chicago, IL     /     Anna Kocherovsky – West Bloomfield, MI

Alexandra Kohl – Mamaroneck, NY     /     Haeley Kyong – Franklin Lakes, NJ      /     Mati Laforge – Montréal, Canada

Fannie  Lee – Brooklyn, NY     /     Laura Foster Nicholson – New Harmony, IN      /     Amy Putansu – Waynesville , NC

Joh Ricci – Gettysburg, PA     /     Michael Rohde – Thousand Oaks, CA     /     Theda Sandiford – Union City, NJ

Tushita Singh Singh – Uttar Pradesh, India     /     Adrienne Sloane – Watertown, MA     /     Justyna Solomianko – Bialystok, Poland

Gerri Spilka – Philadelphia, PA     /     Susan Tonkin Riegel – Granite Bay ,CA     /     Stefania Urist – Londonderry, VT

Mila Vovk – Irvine, CA     /     Alice Wiese – Mill Valley, CA

 

 

EXHIBITIONISTA: “Cut/Fold/Press” at Craft Alliance!

By

 I am  thrilled to participate in “Cut/Fold/Press” juried by artist and educator Buzz Spector at Craft Alliance showing “Burning Bush”


7.5 x 11 x 5.5″, board, mulberry paper, sewing thread, linen thread

“At times, paper is often thought as a vehicle for other artistic practices. This exhibit embraces the transformational quality of paper and the art created using paper as a primary material. Juried by Craft Alliance’s inaugural Visiting Artist, Buzz Spector, this exhibition brings together compelling work on a seemingly simple material and craft form. CUT/FOLD/PRESS asks paper artists to explore and consider the many forms that paper art takes—books, sculpture, and sheet. 

The exhibition presents artists who use paper as their primary medium or create artworks made on, of, or about paper including cut paper, folded paper, woven paper, glued paper, drawings, paintings, pastels, printmaking, photographs, paper sculpture, 3D, bound books, collage, or as the subject of a video and installation.”

Buzz Spector is an artist, writer and emeritus professor of art at Washington University in St. Louis. His academic career includes five years’ service as dean of the College and Graduate School of Art in the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts (2009–2013). Spector has also taught at Cornell University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a full professor and at numerous institutions as visiting or adjunct faculty.

Spector’s art practice makes frequent use of the book, both as subject and object, and focuses on relationships between public history, individual memory and perception. He has had numerous exhibits in private and institutional galleries and museums in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and his solo or two-person museum exhibits have taken place at the Saint Louis Art Museum; Art Institute of Chicago; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Huntington Museum of Art, West Virginia; Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh; Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, California; Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; and most recently, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL.

Spector has also published two books, Buzzwords (Sara Ranchouse Publishing, 2012) and The Book Maker’s Desire (Umbrella Editions, 1994). He has also written numerous exhibition catalog essays, including for exhibits by Luis Camnitzer, Ann Hamilton, Dan Ramirez and Dieter Roth.  Additionally, Spector received the College Art Association’s Distinguished Teaching of Art award in 2013.

 Craft Alliance is located in The Maker District of  St. Louis, is a hub for artists, enthusiasts, and students to explore, learn, and celebrate the world of contemporary craft. We offer studios for ceramics, print and paper arts, metals, fibers, glass, wood, an artists-in-residence program, robust community programs, and an exhibition program.

Mazur Museum showcases Contemporary Artists Throughout the US

By

I am thrilled to participate in “The 62nd Annual Juried Competition” at The Mazur Museum of Art!

The Masur Museum of Art’s Annual Juried Competition showcases contemporary artists throughout the United States of America working in any medium. First started in 1964, the Annual Juried Competition is the Masur Museum’s longest-running tradition and one of its best-reviewed exhibitions each year. This year, 1400  artworks were submitted by artists all over the nation, in all styles and media.

Exhibition on view Feb 20 – May 3, 2025
Public Reception: January 20, 2025 5:30 – 7:30 PM

I am honored to show: “The Body Politic: Black and Gold”


2024, 8.5 x 23 x 7″, bk board, paint, canvas, metal leaf, lace, cord, netting, trim, beads

About the Juror
Annemarie Sawkins, PhD, is a Milwaukee-based independent curator, who has curated several exhibitions for the Masur Museum of Art including Kogyo: Japanese Woodblock Prints (2022), Treasures of Art Nouveau (2019) and Afghan War Rugs: The Modern Art of Central Asia (2018). Her more recent projects include Profound Prints: Art by Exceptional Women at the Hilliard Art Museum and A Creative Place at the Trout Museum of Art. From 1999 to 2012, she was a curator at the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University. A frequent juror and portfolio reviewer, Annemarie Sawkins has a MA and PhD in Art/Architectural History from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
Sponsored by The Northeast Louisiana Arts Council

62nd Annual Juried Competition – Public Reception
5:30 – 7:30 PM
Juror’s talk and awards: 6:30 PM
Receptions at the Masur Museum of Art are free and open to the public. Light food and refreshments are served and ID for alcoholic beverages is required. Parking at the museum is limited so carpooling is suggested.

 

EXHIBITIONISTA: 62nd Annual Juried Competition: Mazur Museum

By

I am thrilled to participate in “The 62nd Annual Juried Competition” at  Mazur Museum!

About the Exhibition
The Masur Museum of Art’s Annual Juried Competition showcases contemporary artists throughout the United States of America working in any medium. First started in 1964, the Annual Juried Competition is the Masur Museum’s longest-running tradition and one of its best-reviewed exhibitions each year. This year, 1400  artworks were submitted by artists all over the nation, in all styles and media.

Exhibition on view Feb 20 – May 3, 2025
Public Reception: January 20, 2025 5:30 – 7:30 PM

I am honored to show: “The Body Politic: Black and Gold”

2024, 8.5 x 23 x 7″, bk board, paint, canvas, metal leaf, lace, cord, netting, trim, beads

About the Juror
Annemarie Sawkins, PhD, is a Milwaukee-based independent curator, who has curated several exhibitions for the Masur Museum of Art including Kogyo: Japanese Woodblock Prints (2022), Treasures of Art Nouveau (2019) and Afghan War Rugs: The Modern Art of Central Asia (2018). Her more recent projects include Profound Prints: Art by Exceptional Women at the Hilliard Art Museum and A Creative Place at the Trout Museum of Art. From 1999 to 2012, she was a curator at the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University. A frequent juror and portfolio reviewer, Annemarie Sawkins has a MA and PhD in Art/Architectural History from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Sponsored by The Northeast Louisiana Arts Council 

 

 

The HERa Rewrites HER/OUR Story

By

I am thrilled to participate in the Hera Gallery’s year long, 52-piece online show, “Rewriting her Story“

“Writer Elizabeth Lesser asks “What story would Eve have told about picking the apple? Why is Pandora blamed for opening the box? And what about the fate of Cassandra who was blessed with knowing the future but cursed so that no one believed her?”

Flipping through the pages of your high school history textbook, how many stories are written about women as monumental protagonists? When was the last time you watched a movie that passed the Bechdel test? When was the last time there were more women than men on the Supreme Court voting on the right to our bodies? 

As brands of “faux” feminism partnered with consumerist culture push out media representing women’s liberation through a patriarchal gaze, how can we reclaim the visual language to share more authentic stories? How can our art share the stories of women, trans women, and non-binary folks written out of the history books? How does your work give voice to the overlooked and underrepresented? 

Hera Gallery presents 52 works that rewrite this cultural consciousness for a more inclusive human history.”

I am honored to have two pieces in this salient exhibition, and to participate in a small way, in Rewriting Her/Our/Their Story.

 

Please see the SHOW in its entirety HERE.

My works in the show:
WHITE ZIP

and
INTO THE BUSH

Please see the SHOW here.

Surface Design Association Instagram “Take-over”!

By

The weekend of November 29-December 1 I had the pleasure, the honor and the fun of “taking over” (collaborating with) the Instagram account of the beloved  Surface Design Association or “SDA”, as it is commonly known.

It was so much fun, rewarding and delightful to get responses from and connections to many artists and makers I was not yet aware of, and peruse their beautiful and innovative work.

Thank you SDA, for this lovely opportunity, and for All you do for All of us.

Here are some of my posts (sans videos):
(You can see the whole collaboration, as well as continually added works on the SDA Instagram as well as my own)

Hello and a happy holiday weekend to All. I have the privilege of collaborating with the @surface_design this weekend, an organization I am thrilled to be a part of. SDA offers community, connection, education and wonderful opportunities. I have had the pleasure of participating in several SDA exhibitions, and I am honored to be in the company of other SDA artist members showing around the country! Thank you SDA, for all you do for all of us.

“LA Foret I, II and III” Adding complexity with each piece, as a stand alone, and components of a whole. They are made from hundreds of pieces of cord, glued to a raw canvas surface, painted on the reverse, and hanging at a slight remove from the wall.


(a different image of this piece is on Instagram)
“KnoW Safe Place”, 2023, 60 x 48 x 48″, canvas, hemp/nylon/cotton cord, lace, netting, lace, ribbon, acrylic paint, wood, archival adhesive.  Is there no safe place?  Do we ever know safe space?

“The Body Politic: Like White on White”, 2024, 9x16x7
book board, hemp, canvas, hemp/assorted cord, trim, acrylic paint, archival pva
Three dimensions reaching into three dimensions.


A treasured part of my practice is sharing the wealth as a teaching artist across LA County. I teach bookmaking and more in libraries, schools, museums and other venues. I value these collaborations with others such as librarians, whose expertise I respect and learn from! Thank you to the @culture_la and others for the opportunities you afford teaching artists in all disciplines.

Studio shot from the back by André Smits 
@artistintheworld713


Girrrrl powerFUL students from my “Making Art Inspired By Great Artists” class…creating their own textile hangings inspired by Faith Ringgold‘s extraordinary Story Quilts. Age range 1-5th grade, quite a range, and so talented.


It has been an honor to collaborate with the @surface_design over the past three days, and thank you, SDA for inviting me to do so. I leave you with “The Body Politic: Black and Gold“, 2024, 8.5 x 23 x 7”, made of book board, canvas, cord, netting, lace, trim, metallic leaf and beads. A book-inspired object that references the body as well as adornment and asks is what is precious; which can be presented in multiple states of open and closed; hints and glints at secrets, yet contains nothing on its pages except that which we project. Wishing all a healthy and peaceful holiday and strength for the New Year.