A Conversation with Jonathan Lyndon Chase, by Keesean Moore
Photo: Jonathan Lyndon Chase in their studio, photo by Rafi Martinez
Jonathan Lyndon Chase was the juror for the 3rd Art Student Biennial, which is on view at the William Way LGBT Community Center until April 17 th (Mark your calendars: The Closing Reception will be held on Thursday, April 17 th , 6-9PM!) Chase recently sat down for a chat with Arts Committee member and owner of The Moore Vintage Archive, Keesean Moore. Their conversation covered everything from art, fantasy and the importance of living deliciously.
Chase is a powerhouse artist with a huge heart and a boundless love for Philly and their community at large. Their interdisciplinary work in painting, video, sound, and sculpture explores the life-sustaining beauty found in the most intimate, quotidian expressions of queer Black love. Their next solo exhibition titled “Downpour” opens on April 8th at Sadie Coles HQ, A London-based contemporary art gallery representing established and emerging international artists.
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Keesean Moore : Let's start with the city of brotherly love and sisterly affection… What does Philly mean to you?
Jonathan L Chase: First and foremost, Philly represents a deep-rooted idea of home. I was born and raised here. My grandma migrated up from Georgia when she was 16 and had 3 kids. I did all of my higher education studies here -- I went to Community College of Philadelphia for undergrad; The University of the Arts for my BFA; and for my Master's I went to PAFA (Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts). There's so much rich history in the city that I celebrate and also am becoming more and more protective over. It's really close to my heart
KM : We're very grateful as an organization that you chose to donate your work “Femmes Married to Books.” Can you talk a bit more about what the work means to you?
JLC: This work was really about the kind of softer, tender, perfect moments and our love of books – me, my husband and a lot of our friends. So much of my work is literally about just the mundane, the domestic, just my everyday goings-on. I'm really interested in introspection – Quieter moments, and this kind of coexistent mingle. When making the work I didn’t really have a plan in mind initially. So often I'll work mostly from memory.
Jonathan Lyndon Chase
Two femmes married to books, 2020
Marker, pen, watercolor on paper
10 x 7.50 in
KM : Can you talk about the ways that the archive enters your work? But then, also, specifically about your personal experience with the John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives?
JLC: Absolutely, I remember first encountering the William Way LGBT Community Center when I was a baby gay, at 16. I was then reintroduced to the Center when I was at UArts while doing a project for this crazy painting idea I had at the time and I visited to do some research. My time in the John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives was my introduction into an understanding of the nature of the archive and how I could use it within my own practice. With my practice, I compile everything from found photographs, images, my own little notes, scribbles, doodles. It really helps me understand this idea of being the center of your own narrative. In a way, too, I think the archive is kind of scientific, but also really sacred and almost religious as well.
KM: Definitely. I believe the archive is a bottomless reservoir of solutions and knowledge and strategies for survival, so I relate to that, for sure. What did it mean for you to be asked to jury the 3rd Art Student Biennial?
JLC: Oh, my God! I often get asked to jury competitions so I try to be very selective with the things I want to collaborate on. This one in particular brought me a lot of joy. I was a little overwhelmed because teaching and being a critic are things that I really love to do, and especially since two of our academic institutions have closed, I really feel like this helped lift my spirits. I loved that there was a range of different backgrounds and ages, and people who are academically trained and self-taught. It was an honor to be asked to do it. There was pressure, but like the best kind of pressure.
KM: How did you navigate making the selections? Did you have an intention at the onset? Or did you move through the process a bit more organically?
JLC: I really tried to think of each artist individually. I definitely wanted to focus on uniqueness in both the subject matter as well as the material usage. I also wanted there to be a wide variety of different mediums. As a queer person there's an inherent fluidity that's really important, so I tried to keep those things in mind. I feel pretty good about where we landed.
KM: Did anything surprise or inspire you in the work that was submitted?
JLC: I was really excited to see what I would consider contemporary techniques with respect to technology. I think a lot of times 2D work or painting can dominate lots of art spaces. And I was really delighted and surprised to see that there were a lot of people going in with pretty elaborate video narrative work.
KM: Were there any recurring themes you noticed in the work that was submitted?
JLC: Definitely figurative work was a recurring theme, and portraiture. There was also a theme of maybe, the fantastical, less like science fiction but more like fantasy. I'm always in love when the lines blur between pop culture and art historical.
KM: If you could tell your student-self something, what would you tell them?
JLC: I would tell them to take things with a grain of salt. Don't let anyone tell you that too much is too much. Follow your intuition. If you're in a space or a place where you're not seeing people who are like you or that look like you or that are interested in the same things that you're interested in, remember that it is okay and necessary to leave.
Maybe this harkens back to the archive but I would tell them to seek out that knowledge, share that knowledge, find people outside of those institutions. While there's a great benefit from higher education and academic spaces, they're also riddled with lots of problems. I would definitely say, just try to look for community. It's going to be a challenge, but it'll be all worth it, and you'll be stronger and healthier for it.
KM: We are all navigating, increasingly antagonistic times. I always caution against the overuse of the word “unprecedented”. As I feel the white supremacist playbook is ultimately uninventive and unimaginative. How are you staying diligent in your artistic practice? And what new challenges have arisen in 2025?
JLC: I always encourage people to take a break. You don't have to keep up with every terrible thing that happens. There's a difference between being in the know, and it damaging your wellbeing.
With my art, I go to it for so much restoration and healing, and using that to remind myself that artists are needed probably now more than ever, while also realizing that there isn't one singular thing that can fix it all. Art is a part of a bigger system of things that can help bring us to what we want and what we deserve, and to bring us justice. I have faced censorship, a lot. I’ve seen many of my colleagues and my friends face backlash and turbulence.
I think in many ways institutions are kind of collapsing in on themselves, which I think is kind of great. I also remind myself of our ancestors and the things that they've experienced. For a lot of us this is the first time we've really experienced something this scary in such close proximity.
I know it gets cliche to say, but just show up for the people local to you and do what you can. Even if it's a little bit, it can really go a long way. We can't fix the world by ourselves, but together, if we each do our part, it'll really add up.
KM: How are you finding joy outside of your artistic practice?
JLC: I've been really enjoying decorating our house. I've been spending a lot of time trying to pour love into my living space. Painting the walls, rearranging things. I have a stock of fabric, so I'll just rotate through it, and drape it over chairs or hang it on the wall. I also have this little collection of home interior books. Me and my mom bonded over books by Christopher Lowell, so I spend a lot of time just looking at these old vintage interior design books, and just trying to embrace the experimentation and the play of it all. It's very pleasurable. That and watching lots of horror movies.
KM: You have to lean into that. Why deny it? Why deny yourself that pleasure?
JLC: We must live deliciously.
KM: Truly. That joy and pleasure and the delicious, the erotic are collectively the antithesis of fear. It is important to lean into the lushness. What kinds of futures are you dreaming up?
JLC: Oh, wow! I believe that the future is non-binary. It's hella queer. I believe that the future is hella Black, hella trans, hella transformative. Hella just like free and liberated. I've been seeing a lot of people talk about how we have a right to violence. And I think that's something really powerful and radical, and that we need to kind of tap in more for our power and our energy and our safety. And I think, to maybe touch on fantasy again, I would say, read Samuel Delany and Octavia Butler. These are guesses and predictions, ideas of the future.
KM: You mentioned Octavia Butler and Samuel Delany as Science Fiction writers. Are there any other “North Star” writers and artists that motivate and inspire you to persist and strive to create engaging work?
JLC: Well, the writers that I really like, that I've been reading a lot, are James Baldwin and Danez Smith. Devan Shimoyama did the cover art for Danez’s latest publication. They're pretty fabulous. They're brilliant.
KM: Truly. Shimoyama painted a portrait of Rickey Laurentiis, who's another queer trans poet. Do you have any advice for artists making work in these challenging times?
JLC: Make work that you want to make. Your work does not have to reflect anything political if you don't want it to. Make the work that you think is important, and don't feel pressured into making work that you don't want to make.