Lightness of Being: A Global Exhibition Curated by Sergio Gomez
Create! Magazine is proud to present Lightness of Being, an international virtual exhibition showcasing artists who explore the many dimensions of lightness.
Through painting, photography, sculpture, and mixed media, the featured works invite viewers to consider lightness as an emotional release, a spiritual awakening, a physical sensation, or a metaphor for resilience. This exhibition reflects on how artists navigate the spaces between vulnerability and joy, gravity and grace, and how creative expression can offer moments of clarity in times of transformation.
Curated by Sergio Gomez, Lightness of Being brings together a global roster of voices whose work speaks to the power of art to illuminate, uplift, and inspire.
Participating Artists
Lara Alcantara Lansberg, Nerea Azanza, Francis Beaty, Wendy A. Born, Arturo Brena, Nataliia Center, Karen Chang, Isabelle Chartrand, Kim Smith Claudel, Lauren Crasco, Nicolle Cure, Mary Davidson, Marleen De Waele-De Bock, Vikki Drummond, Lingua Fine Art, Chen Gao, Chad Glazener, Jason C. John, Kimberly, Dana Major, JP Morrison Lans, Maya Rae Miller, Shawna Miller, Heidi Mortensen, Huy Khue Nguyen, Joanna Pilarczyk, Mary Porterfield, Michael Potts, Kateryna Reznichenko, Aidamaris Roman Tejera, Sarah Sanford, Kate Street, Bri Vandyke, Tracy von Ahsen, Vanessa Wenwieser, and Emily Wingate.
Curator Bio: Sergio Gomez
Sergio Gomez is a visual artist and curator whose large-scale figurative abstractions and charcoal drawings delve into the profound cycles of life. Recently relocating from Chicago to South Florida, Sergio has exhibited in more than 45 solo shows across the United States, as well as internationally in Romania, Italy, Mexico, and Vienna. His work is included in prestigious collections such as the National Museum of Mexican Art and the Brauer Museum.
Alongside his studio practice, Sergio has curated over 100 exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad. Since 2010, he has served as the Director of Exhibitions at the Zhou B. Art Center in Chicago and is the founder of 33 Contemporary Gallery. His curatorial projects include the long-running National Self-Portrait Annual Exhibition in Chicago and the influential National Wet Paint MFA Exhibition, which helped launch the careers of emerging painters nationwide.
Beyond curation, Sergio is a dedicated mentor and educator. He is co-founder of Art NXT Level®, an academy that helps artists build sustainable careers, and host of the Art NXT Level Podcast, which has inspired thousands of contemporary artists worldwide. He is also the co-author, with Dr. Yanina Gomez, of Crush Self-Sabotage and Live Fully! The Artist's Wellness Journey to Confidence and Success.
Sergio’s influence extends beyond Earth itself. His artwork and curated exhibitions are included in the Lunar Codex Project—a digitized collection of global art and cultural expressions that has been launched to the moon via SpaceX.
Through his multifaceted practice, Sergio Gomez continues to illuminate, empower, and inspire artists and audiences across the globe.
Joanna Pilarczyk is a London-based painter known for her vibrant use of colour and layered compositions. Her internationally exhibited portraits explore identity, relationships, and acceptance, celebrating diversity through striking, expressive imagery.
Sarah Sanford’s work captures the fleeting beauty of light and the hidden patterns of the natural world. Through layered prints, dimensional collage, and installations, she invites viewers to reflect on impermanence, interconnectedness, and the quiet moments of wonder in everyday life. Featured in the Lightness of Being exhibition, her art offers a contemplative space for connection and discovery.
Marleen De Waele- De Bock’s work celebrates the beauty of life through vibrant, immersive paintings inspired by nature and her experiences living around the world. Featured in the “Lightness of Being” exhibition, her art offers viewers a sense of peace, joy, and positivity, inviting a moment of serenity in everyday life.
New York City–based artist Tracy von Ahsen creates hand-cut analog collages that merge memory, myth, and personal transformation. Featured in the Lightness of Being virtual exhibition, her work explores liminal moments where lightness emerges through stillness and emotional release, inviting viewers into layered psychological spaces of reflection and introspection.
In the Lightness of Being exhibition, Mary Porterfield presents intimate, life-sized drawings reflecting her mother’s care for her father during his battle with Parkinsonism. Layered and translucent, her work captures both the weight of loss and the quiet resilience of love, inviting viewers to witness transformation and reflection through her deeply personal lens.
Kateryna Reznichenko’s paintings invite viewers into a space between clarity and collapse, blending realism with expressive gestures. Featured in the Lightness of Being virtual exhibition, her work reflects themes of transformation, resistance, and the delicate interplay of intention and chance.
Maya Rae Miller transforms intuition into art through her surrealist automatic drawings. Featured in the “Lightness of Being” exhibition, her work invites viewers to engage with the subconscious, discovering beauty, emotion, and shared human experience in each line and gesture
Emily Wingate’s work invites viewers into a world of calm and reflection, capturing the subtle beauty of nature and the interconnectedness of life. Featured in the Lightness of Being virtual exhibition, her paintings convey a sense of serenity and hope, offering a moment of quiet introspection.
Mary Davidson’s work captures serene landscapes and intimate scenes with a delicate mastery of light and color. Featured in the “Lightness of Being” virtual exhibition, her paintings invite viewers to pause, reflect, and experience the quiet beauty in everyday moments.
Renowned for his evocative paintings and dynamic presence in over 100 exhibitions, Jason John invites viewers to explore the subtleties of human emotion and perception. His work in the “Lightness of Being” virtual exhibition continues this journey, balancing technical mastery with emotional depth, offering a contemplative and immersive experience.
Portland-based interdisciplinary artist Kim Smith Claudel transforms natural, discarded, and technological materials into contemplative works that intersect painting, sculpture, and performance. Featured in the “Lightness of Being” exhibition, her pieces invite viewers to slow down, connect with the present, and experience the subtle beauty of ephemeral moments.
Mexican-born, New York-based artist Arturo Brena is celebrated for his dual sculptures, intricate works that transform under light to reveal hidden shadows and unexpected forms. Featured in the “Lightness of Being” virtual exhibition, Brena invites viewers to explore the delicate balance between presence and absence, light and dark, in a captivating visual experience.
Vanessa Wenwieser’s photography and digital art places women at the center of imagination, capturing vulnerability, intuition, and emotional depth. Featured in the “Lightness of Being” exhibition, her work invites viewers to witness the transcendent and the sublime through intimate, imaginative portrayals of the female form.
Vancouver Island-based photographer Bri Vandyke presents her atmospheric, abstract seascapes in the Lightness of Being virtual exhibition. Using Intentional Camera Movement (ICM), she translates the rhythm, light, and emotion of the coast into evocative imagery that invites quiet reflection. Vandyke’s work transforms landscapes into experiences, capturing both the seen and the felt in a meditative exploration of nature’s quiet power.
Portland-based abstract painter Chad Glazener presents his evocative, gesture-driven work in Create! Magazine’s Lightness of Being virtual exhibition. Each piece emerges from silence, offering a visual record of presence and inviting viewers to explore their own interior landscapes. Glazener’s paintings nurture contemplation, blending playfulness, embodiment, and spiritual awareness to reveal the subtle lightness that arises when we fully inhabit the moment.
Francis Beaty, a Philadelphia-based interdisciplinary artist, presents her evocative installations and sculptural work in Create! Magazine’s Lightness of Being virtual exhibition. Using aluminum screening, felt roofing paper, and natural elements, Beaty creates pieces that explore movement, lightness, and the beauty of imperfection. Her work invites viewers to reflect on individual vulnerability, collective strength, and the quiet moments of contemplation that can transform everyday experiences into profound insight.
Lauren Crasco, a San Francisco–based visual artist and production designer, presents her ongoing collage series in Create! Magazine’s Lightness of Being virtual exhibition. Combining vintage and contemporary magazine imagery with botanical elements, Crasco distills feminine archetypes into sparse, contemplative compositions. Her work invites viewers to reflect on personal identity, the essence of beauty, and the subtle narratives hidden within each solitary figure.
Michael Edwards, known as Lingua, is a pen-and-ink artist celebrated for his large-scale, intricately detailed portraits. Featured in Create! Magazine’s Lightness of Being virtual exhibition, his work transforms fine lines and abstract strokes into expressive faces and human figures. Using cold-pressed paper, vibrant gel pens, and glitter accents, Lingua creates compositions that invite viewers to explore every nuance, discovering depth, color, and emotion in every piece.
Michael Potts, a photographer based in Arizona, presents his minimalist and evocative work in Create! Magazine’s Lightness of Being virtual exhibition. Focusing on water, light, and introspective moments, Potts’ images explore renewal, healing, and the journey toward discovering one’s true self. His work invites viewers to witness the transformation from darkness to light and reflect on their own paths of emergence and growth.
Nerea Azanza, a Spanish visual artist based in Paris, presents her innovative abstract figurative work in Create! Magazine’s Lightness of Being virtual exhibition. Combining mixed media on paper, wood, linen, and eco-friendly textiles, Azanza transforms small portraits into expansive installations that explore motion, spatial patterns, and the interconnectedness of life. Her art reflects a deep engagement with transformation, resilience, and the dynamic flow of the world.
Kate Street, a Southsea-based artist, curator, and lecturer, explores the complexity of the female body through collage, sculpture, and installation. Featured in Create! Magazine’s Lightness of Being exhibition, her work challenges embedded ideologies within visual culture, using found imagery and material tensions to disrupt traditional narratives. With recurring motifs of figuration, landscape, craft, and erotica, Street invites viewers to reconsider femininity as a site of both vulnerability and power.
Melbourne-based artist Khue Nguyen presents deeply personal and poetic works in the Lightness of Being virtual exhibition. Spanning lyrical abstraction and explorations of diaspora, his paintings investigate the human form, the emotional language of movement, and the layered narratives of identity and memory. Nguyen’s practice bridges personal experience with collective history, inviting viewers to engage with themes of belonging, transformation, and resilience.
Aidamaris Román’s work, showcased in Create! Magazine’s Lightness of Being exhibition, melds realism and surrealism through luminous oil portraits. Her evocative paintings, rich with neon glows and layered transparencies, explore themes of identity, memory, and the delicate space between reality and imagination.
Heidi Mortensen’s work, featured in Create! Magazine’s Lightness of Being exhibition, explores the fragile boundary between constraint and liberation through intricate mixed media sculptures. Using cast resin, glass, and organic elements, her pieces evoke the transformative process of letting go, inviting viewers to reflect on their own moments of transcendence and freedom.
Featured in Create! Magazine’s Lightness of Being exhibition, Canadian artist Vikki Drummond transforms nostalgia, whimsy, and philosophical inquiry into playful yet thought-provoking portraiture. Her work blends 1970s-inspired shapes, signature distortion, and layered narratives to explore the boundaries between seen and unseen, real and imagined, inviting viewers into a world where beauty and absurdity coexist.
Featured in Create! Magazine’s Lightness of Being exhibition, multidisciplinary artist Nataliia Center creates intimate, mysterious works in photography, video, and oil painting. Her pieces explore the unspoken—charged gestures, tactile details, and the space between bodies—inviting viewers to step in and complete the story through their own sensations.
Karen Chang, an expressive artist based in the Pacific Northwest, transforms personal resilience into vibrant, surreal compositions that balance chaos and calm. Combining palette knife techniques, luminous color, and emotive brushwork, her paintings invite viewers to uncover hidden magic and connect with the extraordinary within.
Morrison Lans’ art reveals intimate emotional journeys through layered colored pencil, encaustic, and underpainting techniques. Highlighting themes of motherhood, transformation, and identity, her work invites viewers into a space where anatomy meets soul. Currently featured in the “Lightness of Being” virtual exhibition, Lans’ unique blend of figurative realism and abstraction offers a poetic meditation on the emotional body.
Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist Dana Major creates immersive light environments using studio-fabricated LEDs, repurposed glass, and raw materials. Her installations explore how perception constructs reality, encouraging slow, analog observation in a digital world. Major’s work is currently featured in Create! Magazine’s “Lightness of Being” virtual exhibition.
Shawna Miller’s layered, emotionally resonant paintings focus on the quiet, intimate connections between mother and child. Featured in the Lightness of Being virtual exhibition, her work invites viewers to reflect on the psychological nuance and beauty of maternal experience. Through bold underpaintings and cropped compositions, Miller offers a poignant glimpse into the colorful mess beneath even the most composed surfaces.