SXU Art and Design Professor Featured in Exhibition at Beverly Arts Center
Saint Xavier University (SXU) art and design professor Nat Soti's art exhibition, "All These Words Are," will open at the Beverly Arts Center on January 23 and will run through February 22.
"All These Words Are" explores visual language and world-building at the intersection of art and graphic design. Drawing from an evolving dictionary of personal graphic symbols without pre-defined or fixed meanings, Soti examines how meaning and expression emerge through use, composition, and context. As symbols appear and reappear across digital prints, mixed-media works, painting, drawing, collage, video, and motion graphics, meaning is allowed to emerge rather than be dictated.
"I'm interested in making things that are at the intersection of art and graphic design. I would say the foundation of it is digital vector graphic work, but I then explore applying those things in different media, from drawing to painting, collage, photography and even motion graphics and video. In the work, you see a lot of the same graphic symbols appear and reappear in different media," said Soti.
In a time where society constantly demands talking points, hot takes and personal declarations, "All These Words Are" invites viewers to pause before certainty and embrace curiosity, reflection, and the ongoing process of finding connection and meaning for themselves.
Soti has been working on the exhibition pieces for the last couple years. Some fragments of his art come from 15-20 years ago. He has enjoyed creating the graphic symbols and leaving some mystery even to himself as the maker.
"These symbols don’t have pre-defined or fixed meanings. Any meaning happens only by using them in making the art. I think of it as a visual language or world that grows and evolves the more I make with it. It’s like the letter ‘a’ on its own doesn’t mean anything, but when you start combining it with other letters to make words and you combine those words to make sentences, before you know it, you have stories, poems, and novels. I’m sort of exploring the visual version of that."
Soti was drawn to art from his interest in comic books. He drew comics and made up his own superheroes, but to this day, what he enjoys most is constantly learning.
"I might enjoy learning to make things more than actually making them. It's probably why I work in so many different media. I also enjoy getting more experience. It's kind of fun to just see what I make in my 50s versus what I made as some emo kid in his 20s. It's fun to notice things that have remained the same and what changed," said Soti.
Much of Soti's work uses Adobe Illustrator, which is the software he teaches in his Computer Graphics course at SXU.
"In order to better teach it to my students, I wanted to be actively working with it myself. Because of teaching, I have been much more aware of my creative process. I am making art with an eye towards what I might be able to share with my students," said Soti.
Soti has taught at SXU for four years and teaches graphic design and video art classes.
"Computer Graphics is a general education digital literacy class, and I enjoy being able to teach a wide variety of students from across SXU. The thing I tell them is that if there is one thing you take away from this class, whether you make any more art or not, is that I hope you use technology not just to consume things but to make things," said Soti.
Soti plans to continue making more art, including the variety viewers will see in the show. He plans to grow the language and the world that has been started and continue to discover new things about his practice. He is also excited about SXU's new video studio at the Campus Media Center and looks forward to using new tools and creating new art.
The opening reception for "All These Words Are" will be held Friday, January 23, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Beverly Arts Center located at 2407 W. 111th Street in Chicago.