Jonathan Lanier
2024 Luminarts Fellow in Visual Arts

Sponsored by: Stephen J. Schlegel

Jonathan Lanier is an artist and educator currently living and working in Chicago, IL. He received his BFA from the University of Alabama in 2019 and his MFA in Sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2023. His pieces serve as symbolic representations of the transformative processes inherent in creative thought. He studies the formal qualities of various organisms to create large-scale amalgamations that narrate his understanding of structure, form, surface, composition, and space. Rather than aiming to make a representation of nature, Lanier’s work illustrates growth as an idea. He is currently serving as an instructional facilities manager at the metal shop of SAIC, guiding students and faculty through their projects as well as leading demonstrations on a variety of metal working techniques. He also serves as part-time faculty for the Low Residency MFA program at SAIC and will begin teaching Introduction to Foundry Processes in the Spring of 2025.