Conversation with Independent Curator · Writer MONIQUE LONG

Lowery Stokes Sims is someone I consider a mentor. Early in my career, I received an ArtTable fellowship and I was assigned to her groundbreaking exhibition The Global Africa Project at The Museum of Arts and Design for mentorship. She hired me after the fellowship and my time there was the first real experience I had working directly with contemporary artists. My advice to emerging arts professionals is to seek out mentorship informally or formally. For artists who want to dedicate full time to their practice, learn what it means to run a business.

A Conversation with Artist J. ADAM MCGALLIARD

I'm working on a series titled Erewhon, which imagines a post-collapse society where unreal figures navigate ambiguous, symbolic environments. The work explores nature’s resurgence, climate anxiety, and spiritual fragmentation. I often incorporate botanical elements or environmental symbolism into my work. I find inspiration in the Florida landscape—its lush, unruly, and often haunted quality mirrors the emotional terrain I explore in my paintings.

A Conversation with Artist JEFF MUSSER

My current body of work aims is to examine the construct of race from two vantage points. One aspect falls loosely into the category of history painting. For example, the painting titled “We Did Not Exist Before 1681” questions how the term white first appeared in early 17th century Colonial Maryland. The second aspect investigates the many ways race has affected my family. The painting titled “Undesirable, Swarthy Swede in 1817: Proud White Southerner in 1860” asks what was lost when my father’s side of the family morphed from being not the right kind of white in 1817, to fighting proudly for the Confederacy in a single generation. I also examine how that shift created a schism between the many sides of my family, particularly the Native American side, who were not considered white. Finally I scrutinize how being viewed as white has affected my personal outlook on the world.

A Conversation with Artist HANNA JENNINGS

Exploring ideas, art and the creative process connects me to people and the way they feel. I'd love to express togetherness through individuality. Like each person, each piece is unique alone, but when collaged all together, it makes something beautiful, like a more unified world, comprised of stories and reflections of "soul" the perhaps others might relate to. Art creates a less shallow relationship between you, the artist, and the viewer. I am an empath and feel deeply about people, places, and the art they bring to the table. I really love hearing about cultures, personal experiences, and how people create in order to communicate, when sometimes words have a hard time doing it. I love how a bunch of people can all be staring at one painting, but have separate experiences, but at the same time, can come together to share and learn to understand one another from a more intimate perspective.

A Conversation with Artist SIERRA OROSCO on Vulnerability & Form

My upbringing taught me to look for the best in people and to understand that humanity is complex. Life isn’t just black and white, but there’s a gray area we often choose to ignore, where no one is entirely good or entirely bad. Exploring ideas, art, and the creative process connects me to the deepest parts of myself and to others. It allows me to reflect, to question, and to express truths that can’t always be put into words. Through creating, I find clarity, connection, and a sense of freedom in being fully, unapologetically human.

Owner · Director of Monya Rowe Gallery

I’ve always been into interesting, creative things in some way, but I can’t say it’s always been highbrow. There wasn’t a turning moment of realizing I like art; it all just came naturally. I think art connects people, inspires, challenges, and helps us to understand ourselves. Galleries, not beholden to the mainstream or their peers, are unafraid to voice an alternative view that might be rooted in politics or sexuality. They also identify the art they perceive as being important to the canon. Before it’s seen in a museum, it was in a gallery.

A Conversation with ANN PRIFTIS
CEO of Whistler Contemporary Gallery

It’s impossible to measure the importance of the arts on a global scale. Art is a fundamental way for humans to express themselves and share ideas. Art can often be a mechanism to have difficult conversations on important topics that would otherwise be too tricky to navigate. Artistic expression connects cultures, bridges ideological divides and expands viewpoints … artistic expression and democratic access to that expression is essential to human life.

A Conversation with MEGAN TOY
Manager of GRENNING GALLERY · Sag Harbor · NY

I like to start my day at the ocean or in the woods. Connecting with nature. On Long Island, we are lucky to be able to visit the sea in minutes, from any direction. Right now, we are exhibiting “Tight Lines,” which is a fisherman-themed exhibition of 5 artists, the first exhibition for a 26-year-old painter. There are some topics that are labeled taboo or inappropriate to discuss, and sometimes artists need to be the catalysts of these discussions. With that said, art should also serve as a respite from social chaos. A meditation of simpler pleasures, like a beautiful landscape.

A Conversation with MARIA ABRAMENKO
Independent Curator · Art Critic · Art Editor in Chief at Nasty Magazine

The work of art most important for me is one that challenges perceptions and invites deeper thought. It’s not necessarily about a single piece, but rather the kind of work that makes me question, reflect, and feel something beyond the surface. Whether it’s a classical restoration or a contemporary installation, I’m drawn to works that tell a story, provoke conversation, or capture a moment of truth. Art that stays with you long after you’ve experienced it—that’s what I find most important.

A Conversation with Artist HSIN HWANG

 I was born and raised in Chiayi, a small city in southern Taiwan near the sacred Alishan mountain range. The area is not only known for its misty forests and sunrise views, but also as the homeland of Indigenous communities, whose culture and animistic beliefs deeply shaped my imagination as a child. Growing up surrounded by temple festivals, oral folklore, and Indigenous stories, I became attuned to the invisible layers of meaning in everyday life—rituals, symbols, and the presence of the spiritual in the natural world. This early exposure continues to influence my artistic practice, which often explores mythology, belief systems, and the feminine through a cross-cultural and symbolic lens.

A Conversation with SUZANNE KARR SCHMIDT · George Amos Poole III Curator of Rare Books & Manuscripts · Newberry Library · Chicago

A Conversation with Artist ABDULNASSER GHAREM

I’m currently working on a project titled The Healthy Sin (Aniconism),. This work addresses my personal and cultural journey navigating the strict religious and social prohibitions against depicting ensouled beings in Saudi Arabia. It explores the complex tension between faith, state control, and artistic expression that has shaped my life and practice. The project consists of a multi-layered installation combining video, sound, and painting. It documents my early experience as a child instructed to deface illustrations in schoolbooks, the silent conflict between government modernization and religious conservatism, and my later act of resistance by organizing a covert live drawing session using a disassembled and smuggled mannequin.

A Conversation with Francesco Ozzola
Founder · Director of Suburbia Contemporary

Growing up in Florence, art was just there—everywhere. It wasn’t some big revelation; it crept in slowly. Eventually, I realized art isn’t just to be admired. It demands something. It resists. It has consequences. What matters to me is how art reframes things—socially, emotionally, politically. It can shake what feels settled. With Suburbia Contemporary, I try to keep that alive. We work with artists who challenge forms and codes, who treat images as thresholds—open, not closed.

A Conversation with Artist JON JOANIS

I was always pretty serious about music and have worked as a musician in some capacity since I was around 14. For me, the disciplines, although differing in skill sets, occupy almost the same mental and emotional space. Also, I learned (and continue to learn) about harmony and composition in art and music almost synchronistically and simultaneously. But where the inspiration comes from in the desire to be connected to these worlds is harder to locate.

A Conversation with STAVROULA COULIANIDIS
Independent Curator · Founder of STAV Curatorial Organization

I believe you need to have a clear sense of the narrative you want to tell. What do you want viewers to learn? How will you visually take audiences on a journey? Whether an exhibition focuses on a particular era, a societal issue or singular body of work, a good curator should be able to tell a story that all can understand. I did not grow up in the art world, so transparency is important to me.

A Conversation with Artist SONJA KEPPLER

For me, art is a universal language that connects cultures. It can be beautiful, it can also be strange and comical, or provocative. Art is versatile and surprising. I was born and raised in Pforzheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. I still live and work here today. My parents and grandparents had a few gardens, so I spent a lot of time outdoors and learned a lot about it. My great-aunt was a jewelry designer and collected many objects from different cultures, such as ritual objects, shadow puppets from Java, and African masks.