Artists Talk with LVA: March 12, 2026

The 2026 LVA Honors is on March 20th, and two of the honorees, Robyn Gibson & Tom Pfannerstill, join us in the studio. Tune into Artists Talk with LVA on WXOX 97.1 FM at 10 AM every Thursday.

Robyn Gibson is an emerging artist, curator, and podcaster living and working in Louisville, KY. After she started boxing in 2016, Gibson began incorporating it into her art practice. Larger-than-life-sized bold, gestural charcoal figures on canvas, a lyrical writing style meant to pack a punch, and voluptuous ceramic vessels inspired by her own curves all convey the movement and force important to her work and inspired by her boxing practice. The act of taking up space and claiming ownership of it is important to her work. As a Black artist focused on self-portraiture and the exploration of her trauma, Gibson grapples with Black identity, the depiction, perception, and value of Black bodies, and what it means to be authentic. She is also the host of the podcast, WheelHouse Art’s Art by Volume, presented by the Wine Room. 

For nearly four decades as a full-time studio artist, Tom Pfannerstill has transformed overlooked everyday objects—trash, food, clothing, paintbrushes, and waste—into astonishing hyper-realistic sculptures. His work challenges viewers to reconsider consumerism and the byproducts of human consumption, often requiring a second glance to distinguish art from reality. Tom has exhibited nationally since 1990 and is the recipient of a prestigious Kentucky Arts Council fellowship. His work is held in major collections including the Flint Institute of Arts, Bellarmine University, and the Evansville Museum of Arts and Sciences. Based in Louisville, his enduring practice continues to influence generations of artists.

Artists Talk With LVA: July 21 2022

It's time again for the Louisville Fringe Festival and Nick Hulstine, Cris Eli Black, & Hannah DeWitt talk about what's in store for 2022. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Nicholas Hulstine (he/him) is a Louisville, Kentucky- based theatre artist. On stage he’s appeared in Tuesday Night Poker (Theatre Row, NYC), Foreign Gothic (FringeNYC), The Dazzle (John Cullum Theater, NYC), The Flick (The Alley Theater), Nobody Bunny and the Golden Age of Animation (Theatre 502), Tales of the 4th Grade Nothing (StageOne). He’s directed productions of Abramovic (Richmond Shepard Theater, NYC) and The Principles of Dramatic Writing (Slant Culture Theatre Festival). As a playwright, his plays have been produced in Chicago and NYC.

Cris Eli Blak is an award-winning and internationally produced writer for the page, stage, and screen. His work has garnered him a Bronze Remi from the Worldfest Houston International Film and Video Festival, the Christopher Hewitt Award in Fiction, a Pushcart Prize nomination, and honors from Vectis Radio, Negro Ensemble Company, Clocktower Players and A is For. His work has been produced, performed, and/or published worldwide, from Off-Broadway, California, London, Australia, and Ireland. He continues to strive to create work that reflects the world that we live in, with all of its different and diverse colors, creeds, and cultures, through his artistic endeavors and work with organizations such as TedxBroadway, Fine Arts Forward, and the Black Theatre Caucus.

Hannah DeWitt is a young artist working on her MFA at the Hite Art Institute in Louisville, Kentucky, and has a BFA from Spalding University. She is a multimedia artist with an emphasis on conceptual performative works, both live and digital. Her works are often participatory, deeply personal, and ethically fraught as she fumbles in the dark in search of anyone to witness. Blurring the line between public and private space, her work balances radical vulnerability and exhibitionism.

Artebella On The Radio: May 27

Jon Cherry is a happening photojournalist who has covered the 2020 Louisville Black Lives Matter protests and was in Washington on January 6. His work is currently on exhibit at the Portland Museum and as a part of the Promise, Witness, Remembrance exhibition at The Speed and he is our guest this week Tune in to WXOX 97.1 or stream @ Artxfm.com Thursday at 10 am.

Exhibiting at The Portland Museum n conjunction with Voices and Votes, an exhibit from The Smithsonian. June 12.

Jon’s work is also included in Promise, Witness, Remembrance at The Speed through July 24

“I am dedicated to capturing moments that spark action without words and convey emotions that may be otherwise foreign to the viewer. This work requires an intensive approach to challenges.  ‘Never walk past a problem you can solve,’ was my father’s credo, and it is this stride that carries me through all my pursuits.” 

He works as a stringer with Getty Images and The New York Times and has been published independently by The New York Times, TIME Magazine, Vanity Fair, The Guardian, New York Magazine, and others.

Artebella On The Radio: February 18

Healing Walls Project presents ”From Spark to the Streets” Healing Immersive Art Experience benefitting the Louisville BIPOC artists HWP Mural Cycle. Artist & curator Ashley Cathey, singer Michelle Johnson, singer-songwriter Tabin Ibershoff, & writer Valentina Ashrova joined us to talk about this fundraiser and the larger mission of this organization. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 or stream on Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10:00 am to hear Keith Waits talk with artists.

Healing Walls Project presents ”From Spark to the Streets” Healing Immersive Art Experience benefitting the Louisville BIPOC artists HWP Mural Cycle

8 Immersive rooms

6 ways to heal through creating art

$25 donation,

Private, safe

COVID compliant

February 26-28 -

Friday, – Sat 3-9 pm / Sun 1-6 pm

Artspace, 321 W Broadway, 7th Floor

Hosted by Creatives of Color Collective

Artebella On The Radio: October 1

John Brooks, Vian Sora, Denise Furnish, & Andrew Cenci all join us to discuss the Quappi Projects exhibit "We All Declare For Liberty: 2020 and the Future of American Citizenship" which is available for viewing beginning October 9. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM, or stream on ARTXFM.com Thursdays at 10 am to hear Keith Waits talk with artists on LVA's Artebella On the Radio.

For the last fifteen years, John Brooks has made his home in Louisville, with several years away in London and Chicago. In mid-2017 he launched Quappi Projects, an art-and-artist-focused gallery exhibiting work reflecting the zeitgeist. Brooks is both a visual artist and a poet.

Vian Sora was born in Baghdad in 1976. She left Iraq in 2006, during the Iraq War, eventually settling in Louisville, Kentucky with her husband in 2009. Sora works primarily with oils but utilizes mixed media and engraving techniques to create three-dimensional textures on canvas.

Denise Mucci Furnish was born in Louisville, Kentucky. She has a BA from the University of Kentucky and a BFA and MA from the University of Louisville. She has backgrounds in quilt restoration, painting, surface design, and graphic design. ... She currently works from her Portland studio in Louisville.

Andrew Cenci is an African-American artist based in Louisville, KY. He uses photography to focus on the beauty of the every day through portraits, contemporary landscapes, and candid images. ... With frames that highlight the beauty, joy, loneliness, and longing of the realities of everyday life.

John Brooks was inspired to develop this exhibit in part by this quote from a speech by Abraham Lincoln:

“The world has never had a good definition of liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in need of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.

With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name — liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names — liberty and tyranny.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precisely the same difference prevails today among us human creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love liberty. Hence we behold the processes by which thousands are daily passing from under the yoke of bondage, hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and bewailed by others as the destruction of all liberty.”