“Holiday Lights” by V Van Sant.

By Gabriela C. Martinez

Nave Gallery is currently holding a photography exhibition titled Illuminated: A Photographic Essay of Holiday Lights, which explores the spirit and feelings of holiday season through images of winter lights.

The exhibition features work by local artists as well as international artists: Jim Baab, Zsolt Bátori, Kelly Burgess, Greg Cook, Melissa Eder, Ileana Hernandez Hernandez, MaryAnne Hinkle, Bill Kouwenhoven, Rachel Mello, H.D. Motyl, Robert Thurlow, Lenny Rigione, V Van Sant, and Jill Waterman. Serving as judges for the exhibition are the staff of the Somerville Arts Council, who also happen to be local experts on holiday lights. Each year the Somerville Arts Council runs a trolley tour throughout the city that spotlights the city’s most unique holiday light displays.

“There’s just something so cozy and uplifting about seeing beautiful little lights everywhere on cold winter nights. It just really encapsulates the entire feeling of the season for me,” says Kelly Burgess, a photographer from Arlington. Kelly, who also runs a Tumblr dedicated entirely to pictures of the Christmas season, is one of the artists exhibiting at Nave.

Illuminated: A Photographic Essay of Holiday Lights is lighting up Nave Gallery, now through December 14.

Jim Baab, another local photographer, learned about the exhibition through an email sent out by Somerville Arts Council. His image, an outline of a Christmas tree reflected on a wall of his house, was photographed on his iPhone 4S using Instagram.

“As an artist who enjoys light, simplicity and illusions – and one who had his passion for photography renewed by the simplicity of Instagram – I really enjoy this image. My creative side made the ‘tree’ and photographed it. Now, this simple image is being shared with a larger audience. I wonder if viewers sense a larger story in the simplicity,” says Baab.

Every year Nave Gallery holds an annual fundraiser for the Somerville Homeless Coalition, known as the Wrap Around Sale. Because the sale usually takes place at the same time as the gallery’s last exhibition of the year, Nave Gallery decided to organize an exhibit with a community focus. Given the popularity of holiday lights in Somerville—as evidenced by the Somerville Council of Art’s yearly illumination trolley tour—the gallery theme of holiday lights was the right choice for the exhibition. In addition to gallery hours during Illuminated, Nave Gallery will also have a tent in Statue Park in Davis Square, where they will be selling goods as part of Dec. 4th Midnight Madness Sale from 5-10 p.m.