Soni Lopez-Chavez was born in Cuitzeo de Abasolo in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. A first-generation immigrant, she immigrated to the United States with her family as a child, ultimately settling in the border region of San Diego, California. Professionally, Soni worked as an acrylic painter and a muralist while also working as a devoted preschool teacher. Outside of the classroom, she dedicated most of her time curating group art shows in San Diego’s vibrant local art scene.

 

Starting in 2013, Soni and her partner began operating their own gallery, La Bodega in the neighborhood of Barrio Logan, located a few blocks away from historic Chicano Park. Her professional art career began in 2020 after she and her partner were forced to close their gallery due to rampant gentrification and statewide COVID-19 shutdowns that effectively shuttered all shows and galleries across the state. Following the unceremonious closure of their gallery and in the midst of an isolating lockdown, Soni made the pivotal decision to transition from acrylic painting to focus on the exciting new realm of digital illustration. Born out of the isolation during the darkest days of the pandemic’s lockdowns, Soni began creating a series of digital art pieces celebrating the empowerment of marginalized and vulnerable communities. Although she had mostly worked in the mediums acrylic painting and muralism beforehand, Soni quickly fell in love with the speed and freedom afforded through the medium of digital illustration

 

Pulling from her own Chichimeca heritage and lived experience as a first-generation immigrant, Soni’s art covers a wide variety of different topics and causes. All revolving around the key theme of empowering marginalized communities and raising awareness for people of color. Her art is manifested with the intention of bringing awareness to the issues and communities around her that she believes need more support and representation. Soni’s art commonly grapples with issues such Indigenous sovereignty and the uplifting indigenous communities, immigration rights, family separation, the struggles of street vendors, the Black Lives Matter movement, mental health awareness, and LGBTQ+ issues among others.

 

Sharing her work on social media, Soni's digital illustrations quickly took on a life of its own, going viral many times over across multiple platforms. Since embarking on the series in 2020, Soni has created dozens of digital art pieces, and her work has received an outpouring of praise across the web. Today, Soni Lopez-Chavez is a renowned digital illustrator with a steadily rising profile. Having gained thousands of admirers as a result of the newfound attention to her art, Soni has only been further driven to create more pieces that bring about self-empowerment and community awareness. Soni’s work is an accumulation of all her life experiences. A representation of her Indigenous ancestry, her life lived back and forth between two nations. As well as the desire not only to bring awareness to issues through their art, but use her platform to counter negative, preconceived stereotypes, and to empower historically marginalized communities in the United States.