Summer Wheat

Summer Wheat has developed an innovative process to paint bright, narrative scenes that explore femininity and reference traditions including Native American artmaking, Egyptian relief sculpture, and Greco-Roman vase painting. The artist presses acrylic through sheets of fine mesh, allowing it to congeal into a satisfying, textured surface that evokes woven tapestries and thick impasto. The effect alludes to elements of Pointillism, Abstract Expressionism, and the pixelation of digital imagery. Wheat blurs the line between fine art and domestic craft, challenging hierarchies with a sense of playfulness. She has exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Milan, Brussels, Tel Aviv, and beyond. Wheat’s work belongs in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, the de Young Museum, and Peréz Art Museum Miami, among others. She was the recipient of the 2016 New York NADA Artadia Award and the 2019 Northern Trust Purchase Prize at EXPO Chicago.