Open Air: Artist Conversation with Willie Little

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 explore behind the scenes with multimedia artist and storyteller Willie Little. A native of rural North Carolina, Little will share about his visual narrative about the rural southern lifestyle while also tackling topics of racism, Social Justice, Black Live Matter and childhood memories of growing up in North Carolina as a gay black male. Curator Dexter Wimberly will lead this Open Air conversation as we explore Little's common thread in all the work he creates in his examination of the manifestations of physical and societal decay in American culture.

How To Participate

This free virtual program will be streamed on the Gantt Center's official YouTube channel.

Willie Little is a Black multimedia artist and author His visual narratives document a fading part of rural southern life while also tackling topics of racism and Black Lives Matter, social Justice, and the childhood memories of growing up on a tobacco farm in Eastern North Carolina. His memoir, In the Sticks, documents his years growing up as a poor, Black and gay child in the rural south. He currently resides in the San Francisco Bay area and Portland, Oregon.

Little is an artist whose genius incorporates sculpture, painting, sound installations, re-constructed architecture, re-cycled memorabilia, and real-life stories. Willie pours out his soul for all to see as he relives growing up during a time of radical change. The common thread in all the work he creates is his examination of the manifestations of physical and societal decay in American culture.

Willie received his B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His solo exhibits include the Smithsonian Institution, The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, the American Jazz Museum, the Froelick Gallery in Portland, Oregon and the Noel Gallery in Charlotte. Notable group exhibitions include the Corcoran and the California Folk Art Museum. He also participated in The Hourglass Project: Baggage, an internationally renowned residency and exhibition program, which toured venues throughout South Africa, Belgium, and Mozambique; the work is archived in a catalog published by Caversham Press (South Africa).

Learn more about Willie Little below and at willielittle.com.

Willie Little: "A love letter to my past"

Dexter Wimberly is an independent curator who has organized exhibitions and programming in galleries and institutions around the world including The Third Line in Dubai, The Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, KOKI ARTS in Tokyo, The Harvey B. Gantt Center in Charlotte, and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. Wimberly’s exhibitions have been reviewed and featured in publications including The New York Times and Artforum, and have received support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. He is the co-founder of the financial literacy platforms Art World Conference and Art World Learning. Wimberly is also a Senior Critic at New York Academy of Art, and founder and director of the Hayama Artist Residency in Japan.

Learn more about Dexter Wimberly at dexterwimberly.com.