"For the January Open Air conversation, we have Asser Saint-Val, who is a Haitian multi-disciplinary artist featured in Inter | Sectionality (https://www.ganttcenter.org/exhibitions/inter-sectionality-diaspora-art-from-the-creole-city/), the Gantt Center's current exhibition. We also welcome Dr. Alix Pierre, an art and culture analyst, and director of Spelman College's Cultural Orientation. This conversation will be moderated by Inter | Sectionality curator, Rosie Gordon-Wallace. Note: This free virtual program will be streamed on the Gantt Center's official YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeKhyseH8OuFhAlysFBv-rw). About Open Air: Open Air is a monthly series of virtual studio visits and intimate conversations with Black contemporary artists across the United States. Join us as we get a behind the scenes look at exciting new art as it's being created while connecting particular works to some of the most pressing issues of our times. Historically, African-American artists have been compelled to make their own way within the art world, challenging traditional ideas of cultural representation and creating their own systems of merit, criticality, and reward outside of the mainstream. About The Artist & Art/Culture Analyst Asser Saint-Val: Originally from Haiti, moved to South Florida, where he earned B.F.A.s in painting and graphic design from the New World School of the Arts. His art has been exhibited in Florida and New York and throughout the Caribbean and is represented in numerous private collections. Saint-Val is a painter, sculptor and installation artist. His quasi-figurative images, by turns humorous and grotesque, bring together ideas, people and incidents central to modern debates about the definition and valence of neuromelanin. Rendered in a blend of traditional art mediums and a wide range of unconventional, organic materials — coffee, chocolate, ginger and, tea among them - his pictures, objects and environments are a surreal fantasia on such loosely linked themes as under-recognized African American inventors, the politics of sexual desire, and the complex aesthetics, narratives and metaphors that attach to the organic compound neuromelanin. Alix Pierre: Born and raised in France, educated in France and America (l'Université de La Sorbonne, and the Florida State University), art and culture analyst Alix Pierre, Ph.D., has taught in France, the Caribbean, and various other higher education institutions in the United States. He is the author of ""L'Image de la femme résistante chez quatre romancières noire: vision diasporique de la femme en résistance chez Maryse Condé, Simone Schwarz-Bart, Toni Morrison et Alice Walker"" (2014) and has completed an eight hundred-page book on gwoka, the traditional music of the island of Guadeloupe. Pierre lent his expertise in Francophone studies to the University of Guyana-the Atlanta University Center Collaborative Project. As part of his community service effort, Pierre has worked with World Relief, the largest refugee resettlement agency in the US, where he designed a program geared at assisting refugees who settle in Georgia to adapt to their new environment. Most recently, Pierre has been named director of Spelman College's Cultural Orientation. About The Curator/Moderator Rosie Gordon-Wallace: Founder, director and lead curator for Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator (DVCAI) is a recognized arts advocate and community leader with over 25 years of experience. She has created key relationships with a multitude of artists and art organizations worldwide such as Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, the Joan Mitchell Foundation and ReadyTex Art Gallery, and has served on several prominent nonprofit boards. Her experiences with DVCAI are enhanced by her community work, which accelerates careers and advocates for arts funding. She is an active member of the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) Fund for African-American Art and is a frequent panelist for funder Miami Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, National Young Arts Foundation and Florida Department of Cultural Affairs. Her awards include The African Heritage Cultural Arts Center Third Annual Calabash Amadlozi Visual Arts Award, International Businesswoman of the Year, and being named one of South Florida's 50 Most Powerful Black Professionals of 2007. She is the current art consultant for the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, Art of Black Miami initiative."