In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Louis-Antoine Gilbert!

About Louis-Antoine Gilbert: French-American painter and artist known for his acrylic on canvas works that create the illusion of depth, living in Washington, DC for nearly a decade, creating colorful acrylic cityscapes inspired by brutalist and modernist architecture, art deco design, and graphic novels by Moebius, François Schuiten, and Benoît Peeters. His cubist-influenced work draws from M.C. Escher and Wassily Kandinsky, and he's also a musician, beat maker, and painting instructor.

In our conversation, Gilbert talks through growing up in Paris with parents who brought him to free museums and concerts, first wanting to be an artist at age four after seeing an orchestra, and starting with graffiti following older kids in the streets. He connects his journey from Parisian punk bands to DC's basement show scene and digs into how DC's greenery—particularly Rock Creek Park—has transformed his gray, Parisian-inspired compositions into more hopeful work with vegetation. As he puts it, discovering DC made him realize "both cities, both of them have brutalist and modern buildings in them."

He recalls meeting artist Autumn Spears early in his DC years, shares stories from selling affordable original drawings at the Little DuPont flea market every six weeks, and discusses learning that French house music actually originated from Detroit. We get into the realities of teaching painting in summers, the influence of graphic novels from his dad's collection, and how nearly a decade in DC has made him rethink the art deco shapes he loved from Paris.

Be sure to follow Louis-Antoine Gilbert on Instagram at @antoine_paints to keep up with his work and future projects.

Photo courtesy of subject.

All views expressed by Louis-Antoine Gilbert are his own and not those of the Law Library of Congress or the Library of Congress

The Truth In This Art is supported by William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, the Maryland State Arts Council's Creativity Grant and Mayor's Individual Artist Award - Creative Baltimore Fund (Baltimore).

Host: Rob Lee
Music: Original music by Daniel Alexis Music with additional music from Chipzard and TeTresSeis.
Production:

• Produced by Rob Lee & Daniel Alexis
• Edited by Daniel Alexis
• Show Notes courtesy of Rob Lee and Transistor

Photos:

• Rob Lee photos by Vicente Martin for The Truth In This Art and Contrarian Aquarian Media.
• Guest photos courtesy of the guest, unless otherwise noted.

Support the podcast

• The Truth In This Art Podcast Fractured Atlas (Fundraising): https://www.fracturedatlas.org
• The Truth In This Art Podcast Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thetruthinthisart.bsky.social
• The Truth In This Art Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truthinthisart/?hl=en
• The Truth In This Art Podcast Website: https://www.thetruthinthisart.com/
• The Truth In This Art Podcast Shop: Merch from Redbubble

In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Zoë Poindexter!

About Zoë Poindexter: Documentary filmmaker, producer, and director based in Washington, DC. She attended journalism graduate school at Georgetown University, where she continues to work as a documentary teacher's assistant, and specializes in nonfiction storytelling.

In our conversation, Poindexter walks through her journey to A Revolution Called Love, a feature documentary inspired by Black Love Day—a holiday created in DC in the nineties by Mama Ayo Handy-Kendi. After living in DC for almost ten years without ever hearing about it, she called the founder and asked to attend. She showed up in purple—the colors of Black Love Day, which happens to be her favorite color—stayed for the entire seven-hour ceremony, and came back saying, "Yes, this needs to be made into a film." The documentary is structured around the holiday's five tenets: love for the creator, love for yourself, love for family, love for community, and love for the Black diaspora. We explore how she's weaving community voices throughout—filming interviews with Black Washingtonians defining what those tenets mean to them, with select responses used as voiceover narration in the feature.

She shares her commitment to telling positive stories that aren't clichés—"We have way too many clichéd stories about Black people, Black communities. I often ask myself, why do we need this again? Who is this actually being made for?" She hopes the film sparks conversation around what we think love is—a deeper dialogue about intention, community, and making work that's truly for us. This conversation came about through a shared passion for storytelling—and the belief that the stories we tell should actually be made for us.

Be sure to follow the project (@blacklovedocfilm on Instagram, Black Love Documentary Film on Facebook) and visit BlackLoveDocumentary.com to learn more and support the crowdfund. Both Defining Love: Voices of Black DC (a short oral history film funded in part by Humanities DC) and A Revolution Called Love are currently in production.

Photo courtesy of subject.

The Truth In This Art is supported by William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, the Maryland State Arts Council's Creativity Grant and Mayor's Individual Artist Award - Creative Baltimore Fund (Baltimore).

Host: Rob Lee
Music: Original music by Daniel Alexis Music with additional music from Chipzard and TeTresSeis.
Production:

• Produced by Rob Lee & Daniel Alexis
• Edited by Daniel Alexis
• Show Notes courtesy of Rob Lee and Transistor

Photos:

• Rob Lee photos by Vicente Martin for The Truth In This Art and Contrarian Aquarian Media.
• Guest photos courtesy of the guest, unless otherwise noted.

Support the podcast

• The Truth In This Art Podcast Fractured Atlas (Fundraising): https://www.fracturedatlas.org
• The Truth In This Art Podcast Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thetruthinthisart.bsky.social
• The Truth In This Art Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truthinthisart/?hl=en
• The Truth In This Art Podcast Website: https://www.thetruthinthisart.com/
• The Truth In This Art Podcast Shop: Merch from Redbubble

In this episode of The Truth In This Art, the guest is Paloma Vianey!

About Paloma Vianey: Interdisciplinary artist from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, now based in Washington, DC. She holds an MFA from Cornell University and has created large-scale public art installations along the US-Mexico border, with work exhibited at major museums and galleries internationally. She is primarily a painter and educator, teaching at the collegiate level.

In our conversation, Vianey walks through her artistic journey from beginning to paint as a teenager when Juarez was labeled "the most dangerous city in the world," using art as catharsis during years of violence. She recounts completing a groundbreaking 72-foot-wide community-funded border bridge mural in 2018, depicting a girl blowing bubbles with each bubble representing emblematic images of Juarez including a tribute to femicide victims. We dig into her signature "Chamara" paintings—labor-intensive works where she hand-sews canvas jackets with industrial zippers over oil-painted urban landscapes of Juarez, creating what she calls "portraits of the city." One painting captured a pink house she'd see every time crossing the border—until one visit when she discovered it had been painted white. "That was a little heartbreaking for me," she shares, explaining how these works archive the changing memory of her hometown through a lens of resilience and hope.

She shares insights on finding community in DC after moving six times in five years, her love for the U Street corridor (particularly Taqueria Xochi for authentic Mexican food), and how DC has been generous in giving her platforms to show her work. This conversation came about after I encountered Vianey's work at Umbrella Art Fair—a chance discovery that sparked a deeper dialogue about representation, resilience, and the power of challenging negative narratives through art.

Be sure to follow Paloma Vianey (@palomavianey on Instagram) and visit palomavianey.com to keep up with her work and future projects. Her exhibition "Un Mismo Cielo Entre Washington y Juarez" is on display at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, DC until July 25th.

Photo courtesy of subject.

The Truth In This Art is supported by William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, the Maryland State Arts Council's Creativity Grant and Mayor's Individual Artist Award - Creative Baltimore Fund (Baltimore).

Host: Rob Lee
Music: Original music by Daniel Alexis Music with additional music from Chipzard and TeTresSeis.
Production:

• Produced by Rob Lee & Daniel Alexis
• Edited by Daniel Alexis
• Show Notes courtesy of Rob Lee and Transistor

Photos:

• Rob Lee photos by Vicente Martin for The Truth In This Art and Contrarian Aquarian Media.
• Guest photos courtesy of the guest, unless otherwise noted.

Support the podcast

• The Truth In This Art Podcast Fractured Atlas (Fundraising): https://www.fracturedatlas.org
• The Truth In This Art Podcast Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thetruthinthisart.bsky.social
• The Truth In This Art Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truthinthisart/?hl=en
• The Truth In This Art Podcast Website: https://www.thetruthinthisart.com/
• The Truth In This Art Podcast Shop: Merch from Redbubble