Top image: My Transmutation by Natalie Jackson, digital photography, 2024

SoNa Chicago is hosting an Artist Talk with two of the artists in the Lightness and Being group show. Refreshments will be served.

In the Call for the group show we asked artists to submit work related to the theme of Lightness and Being and to submit statements about how their work relates to that theme. We received wonderful submissions and commentary. The artists reflected on time, memories, and what lies ahead. The work in the show conveys wonderment at life, nature, spirituality, and our connections to each other. Some of the artists reflected on hardship and how to move through it. The work in the show is profoundly positive and generative. The exhibition is on view through Jan 11, 2025.

Natalie Jackson is a Portrait and Fine Arts photographer. She has lived in Chicago, St. Louis, Atlanta, and Charlotte. She has a photography studio called Nat Jack Studios, which is based in Joliet, IL.  She has won multiple awards and recognitions and her work has been shown in galleries and exhibitions across the U.S. She serves on the Board of Directors at the Contemporary Art Center of Peoria, an active community arts center just south of Chicago in Illinois. She is also the photographer for and on the Board of Directors for Central Illinois Jazz Society. Her work amplifies the beauty and pride in the lives of Black Americans. She wrote for her group show entry, "As a Black photographer, I focus my prime lens on the often-overlooked beauty and dignity of my subjects…. My photography seeks to place us front and center, bathed in the glowing light that has been denied us for too long….”

Glen Gauthier is a mixed media collage artist who recently moved to Chicago from Dallas where he had a studio and also worked as a Creative Director. His artworks are montages of precise clippings from his collection of old books, brochures, images, and documents incorporated on canvas with acrylic paint. He has exhibited in cities across the United States. For the artist statement about his work in the show he wrote, “My medium is collage, utilizing printed ephemera to serve as a kind of time machine…. These materials with a history have fascinated me since childhood. I’m the youngest of five siblings who grew up in a home with overwhelmed parents in south Louisiana….Through this work, I’m having a conversation with myself through time as a boy, a man, and the future version of myself. It doesn’t all make perfect sense yet, but clarity is slowly setting in.” 

Glen Gauthier, Test for Echo, collage and cyanotype on cereal box, 2022