Sarah Crow has spent most of her life learning how to look closely at paint, at memory and at the quiet spaces where grief and faith intersect.
That way of seeing recently filled the walls of the Saint Xavier University Gallery, where Crow’s exhibition, “No Such Thing as Lost,” opened with an artist talk and reception on Jan. 21. The show remains on view through Feb. 21 and brings together five years of studio work shaped by a lifetime of artistic devotion.
“I was one of those kids who always had a crayon in my hand,” Crow said. “I knew I wanted to be an artist when I was five.”
Crow is an artist and lecturer in art and design at Saint Xavier University. She lives in Chicago and earned her MFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She holds a BFA in painting and drawing with a minor in creative writing from the Maryland Institute College of Art.
At Saint Xavier, Crow’s exhibition unfolds as a deeply personal body of work rooted in memory, faith and loss. She describes the paintings as “a visual poem inspired by my personal and familial histories, memories, and especially the experiences of grief and faith.”
“The subject of the paintings is not only their representational imagery, but the materials and processes employed in their creation,” Crow said.
Several key works anchor the exhibition. One of the most striking is “Metanoia,” a 2025 painting made with oil and muslin fabric on panel. The title refers to spiritual conversion, and the piece presents a self-portrait on one side and the face of Jesus on the other, reflecting an inward reckoning shaped by belief and transformation.
Another work, “For Pat,” painted in 2024 with oil and gold leaf on panel, reflects on connection, family, aging, life and loss. The piece carries both tenderness and weight, capturing the beauty found in relationships even as they change.
Crow is also exhibiting “Cemetery Flowers,” a 2025 oil and silverpoint painting on panel that remains a work in progress. The painting depicts artificial flowers left behind at a cemetery, rendered with care and restraint. Crow said she continues to expand the piece and plans to add more flowers over time, allowing the work to evolve alongside the memories it honors.
Throughout the exhibition, exposed layers of paint, subtle distortions and nonrepresentational gestures interrupt traditional illusionism. These visual elements draw attention to the act of seeing and making, and to what Crow describes as reaching for something beyond what is depicted.
“A lot of this work has been very personal,” Crow said. “Each painting tends to be its own world for me.”
Her paintings are informed by Catholic sacramental theology, which understands physical forms as visible signs of invisible realities. “In my paintings I explore how visible forms house invisible truths,” she said.
That framework is reinforced through the inclusion of devotional paintings of saints, which frame the exhibition as a meditation on communion with deceased loved ones. Together, the works balance intimacy and reverence, inviting viewers to reflect on presence, absence and belief.
Crow’s process is as intentional as her subject matter. She prepares her panels using traditional chalk gesso, a labor-intensive technique associated with sacred icon painting. The smooth, luminous surface allows light to pass through thin layers of oil paint and reflect back, revealing depth over time.
Art history, sacred art and materials continue to guide Crow’s studio practice, but teaching remains central to her work as an artist. At Saint Xavier, she teaches drawing, figure drawing, painting and 3D design. She said her favorite part of teaching is witnessing students discover their own artistic voices.
“Every student is different,” Crow said. “I get to see them figure out what matters to them and how to express it.”
Having her work on display on campus carries special meaning, particularly at the start of a new semester. Crow said the exhibition allows students to encounter her paintings as physical objects rather than reproductions, and to understand the time, labor and intention behind them.
“This body of work is very private,” she said. “By exhibiting it, it is finally being shared the way paintings are meant to be.”
“No Such Thing as Lost” is on view through Feb. 21 at the Saint Xavier University Gallery, 3700 W. 103rd St., Chicago. Crow hopes visitors approach the space with patience and openness.
“I want people to feel like the gallery is a sanctuary,” she said. “A place to slow down, look carefully and trust their own responses.”
