Feb 28

Feb 28 Summer Wheat: Reimagining Labor, Color, and Community in Contemporary Art

When our arts editor Daniela,visited Frieze Los Angeles, one of her most exciting discoveries was Summer Wheat—a visionary artist whose bold, tactile works redefine history, labor, and collective experience through vibrant color and intricate technique.

Known for her multifaceted approach, Wheat blends painting, sculpture, and immersive installation to create layered, non-linear narratives that bridge ancient traditions with modern storytelling. Drawing inspiration from medieval tapestries, Renaissance etchings, and modernist abstractions, she challenges historical depictions of labor, class, and gender. Her work envisions a world where time collapses, social hierarchies dissolve, and every individual—farmers, hunters, weavers, bankers, and beyond—shares equal footing.

A hallmark of Wheat’s art is her expressive use of color and unconventional process, incorporating tools like syringes, plastic scrapers, and even cake-decorating paraphernalia to push paint through wire mesh or build heavily textured surfaces. The result? Fluorescent, kinetic compositions that blur the lines between fine art and craft, figuration and abstraction.

In works like Swamp Hunters (2017), she reimagines the traditional roles of hunter and gatherer, portraying women burdened with the weight of their labor yet empowered in their shared resilience. This duality of exhaustion and perseverance runs through much of her work, a theme reflected not only in her subject matter but in the meticulous, labor-intensive process she employs. Her works are featured at the Nazarian / Curcio booth, an L.A. gallery that also presented fantastic new works by artists: