“LIGHT: Nestor Armando Gil, Lori Hepner, Corinne Lalik, Susan Morelock and Jill Odegaard,” bringing together a group of artists to examine the definitions of a single concept, continues through Dec. 11, Ronald K. De Long Gallery, Penn State Lehigh Valley, Upper Saucon Township.

“Inspired by our new gallery’s smart lights and discovering the many ways I could enhance the art on display in the gallery, I decided to curate a group exhibit using the word ‘LIGHT’ as the theme,” says Ronald K. De Long Gallery Director and Arts Coordinator Ann Lalik.

“Each artist was carefully selected and invited to present a variety of references and artistic styles,” Lalik says at the Sept. 23 opening reception for the exhibition with Hepner, Lalik, Morelock and Odegaard attending.

The participating artists created work that approaches light from literal and metaphorical angles: from physical illumination and weight to spiritual and intellectual enlightenment while inviting “audiences to uncover deep threads of connection running through highly diverse artistic practices,” according to a gallery statement.

“My work explores the tactile and ambient nature of design by using handmade paper and mixed media,” says Odegaard about “Diagonal Divide” (2026; wire, handmade paper), one of a series of sculpture suspended from the ceiling where its shadow is an integral part of the work.

“Bringing order to the accumulation of materials and modules is the guiding force as I create images and structures,” Odegaard says.

The Allentown-based artist and educator is a PSU-LV resident artist with a fiber arts project. Odegaard is Professor and Chair of the Art Department at Cedar Crest College, Allentown.

“The series, titled ‘Where Did the Future Go?,’ is a study of the garish objects, baubles, textures and fancies that have accumulated around the process of mothering,” says Morelock, who lives in Allentown with her husband, daughter and their beloved rescue dogs.

“Yogurt Spoon” (2026; pigment print on paper, 19 in. x 13 in.) is an example of what the artist describes thusly: “I’m using the camera to sort out the picture-particular blurriness between straight photography and playful, poetic artifice.”

“Cyanotypes were historically invented to utilize sunlight for reproducing mathematical tables and technical drawings, which gives us the origin of the word, blueprint,” says Corinne Lalik about “The Mapping Of - VI” (2026; cyanotype, acrylic, watercolor on paper, 40 in. x 26 in.), a series of prints.

“Within these studies, I am asking you to consider a new type of mapping, one that creates a blueprint interpreted from memory, spirit and light,” Lalik says. She formed the design collaborative, Holly Jean Studios in 2019 with her husband (Ann Lalik’s son) Nick. She works and resides in Allentown.

“Each work begins with a photograph of the sky taken at a moment that holds meaning for me, which I then replay through wearable LED arrays I build and program; moving in the dark across a long exposure,” says Hepner.

“I redraw that sky in the air with my body, and the camera keeps the whole passage of the gesture as one continuous mark,” Hepner says.

“In the ‘Sky Dances,’ that gesture is open and visible, a few minutes of movement held as a single luminous frame,” says Hepner, a Professor of Integrative Arts at Penn State, Greater Allegheny.

Gil’s “Marinero pescador encantado mi princesa” (2026: laser cut tobacco leaf on paper, 23 in. x 30 in.) is suspended from a wire, casting a shadow on the wall speckled with patterns of light. The artist and educator teaches studio art at Lafayette College, Easton.

“LIGHT: Nestor Armando Gil, Lori Hepner, Corinne Lalik, Susan Morelock and Jill Odegaard,” through Dec. 11, Ronald K. De Long Gallery, Penn State Lehigh Valley, 2809 Saucon Valley Road, Upper Saucon Township. Gallery hours: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday - Thursday, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Friday, Closed Saturday, Sunday. 610-285-5000 ext. 7; www.lehighvalley.psu.edu/gallery

“Gallery View” is a column about artists, exhibitions and galleries. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com