The Melanin Exhibition
An Exploration of Our Outer Shells

The Biological Effects of Ultraviolet Radiation. New York: Paragon, Mixed Media on Wood by Asser St. Val.

“My journey to express these ideas visually pushed me towards figurative abstraction, a more fluid and sensitive style.”

By Rayme Samuels

To most people, melanin creates the physical difference between ethnic groups. Melanin: Reconstructing Shades of Blackness aims to demystify this biological product through a collection of bulbous images, vibrant colors and body parts, with each piece cleverly named after scientific research text.  Asser St. Val, the 2006 recipient of the South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship Award for Visual & Media Artists, hopes to expose a different side to the color-creating pigment during his exhibition of paintings at the Diaspora Vibe Gallery in the Design District.

With a lifelong interest in history, psychology and art as a social science, St. Val noticed that “in the course of my search for my own identity, the issue of melanin continually surfaces.

“This recent body of work is an attempt to express this phenomenon called ‘melanin’ and the role it plays among people of African descent,” St. Val adds, describing his recent exhibition.

Melanin obviously affects skin pigmentation and protects the body by absorbing the sun’s UV rays. Surprisingly, melanin can also be found in the nervous system, the visual system and the auditory system. The complex nature of the subject challenged St. Val in his research. “My journey to express these ideas visually pushed me towards figurative abstraction, a more fluid and sensitive style.”

The Diaspora Vibe Gallery, a staple of the Design District gallery scene, has proven its commitment to showcasing the works of emerging artists from Latin America and the Caribbean diaspora over the last ten years. With a BFA from New World School of the Arts/ University of Florida, this current artist-in-residence has worked closely with the space since it opened in 1996. St. Val’s exuberant and ambitious work has also been displayed around the world, at artist residencies and exhibitions in Aruba, Jamaica, Grenada, the United States and his native Haiti.

Rosie Gordon Wallace, the owner and curator of the Diaspora Vibe Gallery, believes that St. Val’s work is an exact translation of the gallery’s mission statement. “Melanin is an important topic to talk about in South Florida,” says Wallace. “I hope that the exhibition will spark conversation about shades of brown and black and who we are as people.”

The opening reception for Melanin: Reconstructing Shades of Blackness will be held at the Diaspora Vibe Gallery tonight, Thursday, Jan. 4, from 7 to 10 p.m.

The exhibition will run until Feb. 3, 2007 at the Diaspora Vibe Gallery, 3938 N. Miami Ave., Miami. For more information, please call 305-573-4046 or visit www.diasporavibe.com.