This SF Gallery is Transforming into a Church for a Month

The “Artist You Should Know” series highlights local artists before they exhibit their work somewhere awesome, it’s our way of supporting the creative community and helping to keep San Francisco a strange and wonderful place.  

Great art cracks open a deeper understanding of who you are and where you’ve come from and this upcoming show at Moth Belly Gallery invites you into an intimate world of symbolism, self-discovery, and the path toward joy. Be Not Afraid, a solo show by KT Seibert (@seibot) digs into the Christian imagery they grew up with — stuff that’s so often weaponized in today’s political climate — and reclaims it through robes, icons, and ritual in a way that feels personal, joyful, and beautifully queer. Be Not Afraid is particularly exciting for a couple reasons. This is the first solo show for KT and they have been working on this concept for 2 years. For me, I’m most excited to see KT’s art transform the gallery into a church for a month.

You can catch the show opening on December 4th as part of First Thursday in San Francisco’s Tenderloin and available for viewing throughout the month.

KT remembers the exact moment the idea sparked for their upcoming show “I think the idea actually started as a half-joke—something I said during one of the First Thursday Art Walks. The gallery was packed, the energy was high—I remember it was the Wild in the Streets show, featuring work by Andrea Bergen and John Casey. With a wacky waving inflatable tube man flailing at the entrance and papier-mâché raccoons climbing the walls and dangling from the ceiling, I had this sudden thought: what if I turned Moth Belly into a church? 

Not literally, well maybe kind of? but as an immersive art experience of joy. The people who show up month after month—they really do feel like a kind of congregation. 

It started off playfully, but as time went on, the political climate began to weigh on me—especially being on the receiving end of so much hatred, often from people using Christian language and imagery as weapons. So maybe it was out of spite, or maybe it was a form of reclamation, but I felt compelled to take back that visual language—robes, icons, ritual—and use it in a way that felt personal, joyful, and queer. That symbolism stayed with me as the work deepened and moved into more intimate and difficult themes as they came up.”

When I asked more about the title of the show, KT actually moved me in their response, “We often associate the phrase “Be not afraid” with the Bible—especially with seraphim, cherubim, and thrones, since they’re described as these overwhelming, terrifying, beings. The phrase is used to soften the shock of those encounters and I do reference this in the work a little. But it’s actually one of the most frequently repeated lines in the entire Bible. It’s not just angels—God says it to people, people say it to one another. And in those contexts, it’s not about being fearless or conquering fear. It’s about trusting the process, moving forward even when you don’t know what will happen. That we’re allowed to be afraid, and still be okay.”

As artists, we often forget that so much of the work is about honoring the process—recognizing where we are on our creative path and as humans. Being scared or unsure is completely okay; it’s all part of the larger journey.

I first met KT as part of The Mission’s Dive Bar Art Crawl. KT’s work blends joyful color, meaningful symbolism, and a thread of spirituality—but what makes it really powerful is how it’s rooted in religious imagery that could’ve felt scary or heavy but isn’t through KT’s artistic lens. They use their art to tell a deep and meaningful story—one that feels honest, tender, and unexpectedly uplifting for the viewer.

In our interview, KT went into detail as to how growing up in a religious environment as a queer and trans person shaped who they are and how they express themselves in their art.

KT explains, “The relevant context here is that I am a queer, trans person who grew up Catholic and I do not carry any religious trauma. I love horror as a genre, so Catholicism naturally appealed to me. My great grandfather (who lived in San Francisco and was also an artist) was culturally Russian Orthodox, meaning he didn’t go to church ever, but he was constantly burning incense and had hundreds of religious icons all over the house that I would spend hours looking at. I realize now that was an unusual way to grow up but as a child it made sense to me. 

I didn’t continue with church into adulthood, but I studied religious art a lot in college because I liked it so much. Around that time, I started engaging in what became a recurring thought experiment: If I had been born in the past—say, in medieval times—how would I have made it through life? I’ve always felt that I would be queer and trans in any era, so I started wondering how I would navigate the world without access to the gender-affirming care or the freedom to live authentically that I have now.

The answer that always made the most sense to me was this: I would have joined a convent or monastery and spent my life creating painstakingly detailed religious art. In fact, I imagine many queer and gender-nonconforming people did exactly that as a means of survival and expression.

That realization shifted the way I understood my own practice. I’ve always been drawn to the robes, the gold, the pageantry of religious iconography—and once I allowed myself to explore that through this lens, something really opened up for me and it just spun completely out of control from there.”

I always really love getting to know artists by interviewing them in this way. It almost puts a bookmark in the arch of their life and chronicles a moment in time that we all get to look back on and draw inspiration from. While there is a clear religious overtone that we can expect from this show, you can also find symbolism that is heartwarming and brings in themes of home and transformation.

KT outlines some of the symbolism and deeper meaning, “A central theme in the show is home—what it means to build or rebuild a sense of home, both physically and spiritually. There’s a strong undercurrent of loss, transformation, and shedding—a kind of personal molting process.

You’ll also see repeated imagery throughout the work: serpents, keys, hands, stars. These symbols kept reappearing almost uninvited, and over time they became anchors. 

Visually though, the show is vibrant and upbeat: That contrast between tone and theme and the repetition turned into a meditation, almost like prayer, and that process deeply informed the way the show came together.”

This show reflects a core message I will forever believe in: fear is allowed, even when the future is uncertain, we can move forward. The work invites you to believe in yourself and trust that you can move through the moments that bring you to your knees as you transform and create something new. From the heart, I truly believe that I’m learning this as I watch KT rise above challenge-after-challenge in their life. We have the power to rebuild after our world crumbles around us.

KT talks more about this when telling me which of the pieces at the show are the most meaningful for them. “I’m not sure I’d call ‘The Tower’ my favorite piece, but it definitely holds the most for me. It’s one of the few works I’ve made that includes very literal references, which is something I usually avoid. That alone makes it feel vulnerable and exposed in a way I hadn’t experienced before.

I actually bought the wood panel for it back in May 2024, before I even had a full concept—something in me just knew. The idea for the piece really started to take shape after visiting Lady Henze’s studio in February. As is her custom, she had me pull a tarot card, and of course, it was The Tower. At the time, I had no idea what was coming.

Just a few weeks later, the bottom dropped out of my life. All of my relationships ended, I lost a home I deeply loved, and I found myself unhoused with a senior dog. I was working, but it wasn’t enough to stay afloat, and I had to pivot quickly. It was an incredibly disorienting time, and I worked on this piece slowly, in the background, over the better part of eight months and it really reflects all of that grief and processing for me, although I do not think others will have that response. And frankly that’s a good thing.”

Show Details
Where: Moth Belly Gallery
912 Larkin St. San Francisco, 94109
Opening Reception: Thursday, Dec. 4th, 6-9pm

Where can folks find you online?
IG: @seibot & @MothBellyGallery
Website: https://www.seibot.art/