Home Away from Home: Jessica Summers’ Works to be Exhibited at Lea Gallery

Some of Jessica Summers’ artfully depicted personal experiences are being showcased in The University of Findlay’s Lea Gallery, located in the Virginia B. Gardner Fine Arts Pavilion, through Dec. 11. A reception for the artist will take place Nov. 20 from 7-8:30 p.m.
Summers’ paintings, which are based on photos that incorporate dramatic lighting and angled techniques, tell the story of her home. She uses herself and her husband as characters to create ambiguous narratives. Though these pieces can stand on their own, they can also show a story over time.
“A home tells a story about its inhabitants, regardless of their presence. While personal spaces reflect our individual location, lifestyle and taste, domestic spaces universally read as intimate and familiar,” Summers stated.
Summers is an adjunct professor of fine arts at Bowling Green State University. She graduated from there with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2-dimensional studies and art education in 2004. She taught high school art for six years in Indiana and North Carolina before earning a Master in Fine Arts degree from her alma mater in 2014. The Bonfoey Gallery in Cleveland represents her.
Since her decision to pursue her master’s degree in 2011 and a more artistic career altogether, Summers’ work has been chosen for national and international exhibitions. Her pieces have been featured at “Drawing Connections” at the Siena Art Institute in Siena, Italy; the “Contemporary Realism Biennial” at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art; and have been included in the exhibition catalogs at “Who We Aren’t” at Union Street Gallery in Chicago Heights, Illinois and “Tapped” at Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Last fall she was invited by the Ohio governor’s wife, Karen Kasich, to be the fall spotlight artist at the governor’s home. During that event she also gave an artist talk that was later televised. Her work has been exclusively exhibited at Durham Arts Council in North Carolina, Fairmont State University in West Virginia, and at Gordy’s Fine Art Gallery in Indiana.
Along with being featured in both “Studio Visit Magazine” and “Creative Quarterly” magazine, Summers has also participated in a number of small group shows, including “Perpetual Now,” which is on display at the Valade Gallery at Adrian College in Adrian, Michigan.

---