Bio:
Summer Ventis’s work uses the printed surface to address internal and external landscapes and their intersections; the imprints we leave on each other and our surroundings and the imprints that our surroundings leave on us. She received a BA in Art from Grinnell College and an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Colorado Boulder. Her work has appeared in national and international exhibitions and is held by collections including those of the Denver Art Museum and Proyecto ’ace in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is a member of the Colorado-based collectives Hyperlink and ARTNAUTS and of Sacramento-based Axis Gallery and is Associate Professor of Printmaking at California State University Sacramento.
Statement:
My work examines internal and external landscapes and their intersections; the imprints that we leave on each other and our surroundings and the imprints that our surroundings leave on us. The contours of these landscapes and the climates in which they exist are ever-changing. Cycles of flooding and drought shape and reshape the spaces we inhabit. Pandemic and wildfire smoke turn the air we breathe into a source of danger. Pavement sits between us and the earth. Borders are drawn and redrawn. Signs and barriers warn us of dangers we may or may not be able to avoid. Loss, both personal and collective, affects every part of life.
The ways in which our actions have endangered the landscape now endanger us. These climatic shifts can also stand in for other vacillations; in politics, institutions, and ourselves. I wonder, as we adjust to these ever-changing realities, how do we contend with the weather we make?