The genesis of Summer All Present was a longing for summer during the winter months. Summer is anticipated as a season of perfection, but our experience is complex: full and overgrown much like the surrounding foliage. The artists’ themes offer a diversity of approach – touching on the familiar, the idealized, the disconcerting, and the often overlooked.


Leona Christie’s drawings and paintings explore the pleasure and menace of amusement park rides. Caitlin Foley’s performance piece involves a water ritual and unification ceremony using collected samples provided through audience participation. Kinetic sculptures created by Fernando Orellana animate figures on vacation as they attempt to find exactly the right pose for the viewer’s camera. Long exposure photographs taken by Hiramatsu Tsuneaki capture the mystical energy of nature by marking the luminescent trail of fireflies. Lastly, an audio installation by Misha Volf reveals often overlooked subtleties where sounds of nature and our man made environment intersect.

Some works in this exhibition invite viewer participation. The audience is encouraged to bring a small amount of water from a source that is meaningful to them. Caitlin Foley will then combine this water through ritual, and participants will be given a glass vial from the joint source to take home. Viewers are also encouraged to participate by photographing kinetic sculptures animated by Fernando Orellana, helping these anxious robots capture memories of their vacation.

Together, the diversity of work in Summer all Present builds a summertime chorus, a rhythm of highs and lows, accelerating toward a deeper meditation on this most fleeting of seasons.