Artist Statement

I am astounded by the resiliency of the forest: the endless process of reproduction, mutation, and evolution. Even after we trample it, cut it all down, build from and over it, new seeds scatter, vines reach. My work explores the way nature reclaims the built environment. Who or what will fill the vacancies after we have passed through?

I’m drawn to former industrial buildings, abandoned gardens, and the kinds of interstitial spaces that might go unnoticed—under the stairs, odd corners or alleys, the roots, trunks, crooks of trees. Neglected or decomposing spaces hold promise. My hand-cut artwork is a false nature. It’s the juxtaposition of artificial forest to forest-scape.

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Artist Biography

Summer J. Hart is an interdisciplinary artist from Maine, living in the Hudson Valley, New York. Her written and visual artworks are influenced by folklore, superstition, divination, and forgotten territories reclaimed by nature. She is the author of the full-length poetry collection, Boomhouse (2023, The 3rd Thing Press) and the microchapbook, Augury of Ash (Post Ghost Press.) Her poetry can be found in Waxwing, The Massachusetts Review, Northern New England Review, Denver Quarterly, and elsewhere. Her mixed-media installations have been featured in shows and galleries including SPRING/BREAK, NYC; Pen + Brush, NYC; Gitana Rosa Gallery at Paterson Art Factory, Paterson, NJ; and LeMieux Galleries, New Orleans, LA. Summer is a member of the Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation.

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Education

2000
The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
MFA, Book Arts/Printmaking

1997
The Hartford Art School, West Hartford, CT
BFA, Printmaking

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Awards & Honors

2022
MacDowell Colony Fellow, Peterborough, NH

2021
Land Acknowledgment Writer, The 3rd Thing Press, Olympia, WA

Artist in Residence, PHS Meadowbrook Farms, Jenkintown, PA

Finalist, “2021 Poetry Prize,” The Mississippi Review

2020
Finalist, “Spring 2020 Black River Chapbook Competition,” Black Lawrence Press

Finalist, “2020 Adrift Chapbook Competition,” Driftwood Press

Finalist for “Red Bird, Red Bird,” Best of the Net Anthology, Sundress Publications

2018
Artist Resident, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

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Bibliography

Publications

2023
Boomhouse. Full-length poetry collection. The 3rd Thing Press (forthcoming 2023)

2022
11 Triptychs. Limited edition, hand-bound artist’s chapbook
Eleven ink and salt drawings paired with eleven “triptych poems” by Sandra Simonds, selected from her collection, Triptychs (Wave Books, 2022)

2021
Quote Quote Sleeping
Collaboration with Sandra Simonds, Couplet Poetry

Your Eyes Repeat the Landscape
Collaboration with Sandra Simonds, Conversation #45, The Scales Project

2020
Tidewrack, Conversation #24, The Scales Project

2019
Artist Spotlight #25, Digging Press

Poetry

2022
"A Man is an Earthworm in this Respect"; "A Man is the Red Glow of a Compass in this Respect"; "A Man is the Longest Moon in this Respect", the tiny journal

2021
"Auspice 13"; "Auspice 17"; "Auspice 20"; "Auspice 26"; "Auspice 28", The 3rd Thing Press
Published alongside the land acknowledgment for all 2021 books

"The Good News", Hypertext Review

"Horse Crazy", HAD, Hobart,

"Auspices", Pidgeonholes: Fearless Literature

"Auspice 31"; "Auspice 32"; "Auspice 33"; "Auspice 34", Annulet: A Journal of Poetics

"Auspice 24", The Mississippi Review

"Auspice 18", Ariadne

"When the Snow Melts, Prepare for the Snow"; "Hot 104.7"; "Steps, Worn Smooth in the Middle"; "The Incident at Millinocket Lake", Denver Quarterly

"No Man’s Land", Driftwood Press

2020
"Boy Crazy"; "Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board", Waxwing

"Salt for the Stain", Golden Walkman Magazine podcast
Edited by W. Todd Kaneko

"Salt for the Stain", The Massachusetts Review

"Augury of Ash", Micro-chapbook, Post Ghost Press

2019
"North Triptych", Northern New England Review

"44°41'00.3” N, 68°36'20.3” W," Northern New England Review , 2019 True North Summer Spotlight

"Red Bird, Red Bird", Third Point Press

"REAL TURKEY SUPPER", South Broadway Ghost Society

Interviews

2022
"Native Voices", The Massachusetts Review



2021
"10 Questions for Summer J. Hart", The Massachusetts Review

"Summer J. Hart Reads Louise Erdrich on 'Lyric Essentials,'" The Sundress Publications Blog

2020
Wong, Mandy Suzanne, "Cold Light," Entropy Magazine

Wong, Mandy Suzanne, "Vacancies," Kiskadee column, Talk Vomit

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Professional Affiliations

2019 - Present
Artist Member, InLiquid, Philadelphia, PA

2012 - Present
Artist Member, The Brooklyn Collective, Brooklyn, NY

2015
Artist Member, RAW: natural born artists

2006 - 2007
Printmaker Associate, The Ink Shop Printmaking Center, Ithaca, NY

2004 - 2006
Co-Director, OPENSOURCE Art, Champaign, IL

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Exhibitions

Solo‍

2020
Unsaid, InLiquid at One Commerce Square, Philadelphia, PA

2019
Unwritten, Sohns Gallery, Bangor, ME

Protection From What Remains, The Art Dept. Collective, Philadelphia, PA

2018
Cold Light, Wynono & Company, Cold Spring, NY

Group‍

2022
Look Again, DUMBO, NY
Curator: Bree Scotti

In Pomerium, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York, NY

2019
Furies, Fairies, Visionaries, Pen + Brush, New York, NY
Curator: Alice Gray Stites

Out of The Box, Gitana Rosa Gallery, Art Factory Studios, Paterson, NJ

2016
Birds & Bears & Flowers & Things, Sohn's Gallery, Bangor, ME

2011
Whatsoever the Wolf Wishes, Vaudeville Park, Brooklyn, NY

2009
shining with the secret of it, CoLAB Projects, New Orleans, LA

not a bird nested here, Kasia Kay Art Projects, Chicago, IL