I am an interdisciplinary artist and writer based in Brooklyn, NY. My work is about the power of imagining new possibilities, about daring to hope for and imagine better worlds. Central to this futurist imagining is in an exploration of love and intimacy in interpersonal relationships—both platonic and romantic. Rooted in my experiences of queerness and polyamory, my work prompts the viewer to rethink our understanding of how we hold community with one another. It positions love and intimacy as the epicenter from which many of kinds of radical change become possible.
I work materially in the form of textile collages, sculpture, and book arts. I take photos of my partners, friends, and the environments in which we thrive. These photos are printed onto chiffon fabric, which I then use to create textile collages. I find the fragmentation of collage to be instrumental in conveying the potentiality and terror of hope. I often incorporate other textile elements, photos on photo paper, and an array of buttons, beads, charms, ribbons and similar items that I collect. In many works, the place that I collect these charms feels relevant to the work itself, even if only I know their origin. The physical work becomes a site for the opening up of possibilities and highlights the importance of imaginative work and storytelling in liberation struggle.
Desire and vulnerability are integral to many of my works. My work navigates deep feeling and examines how we connect to our minds and bodies and the minds and bodies of others. This act of connection and empathy functions as direct resistance and opposition to the dehumanizing conditions of capitalism, colonization, and patriarchy. I am interested in tapping into knowledge that is held in our bodies and evokes something mystical and steeped in magic.
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Summer McCroskey (she/her) was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1996.
McCroskey holds an MFA from Parsons School of Design (2023) and a BFA from Auburn University (2019) where she was awarded First Place in the Academic Essay Category by Jule Collins Smith Museum in 2017 and the Department of Art & Art History Merit award by juror Maddy Rosenberg in 2019. She has shown her work in various locations in Auburn, Alabama including Biggin Gallery (2018, 2019) and The Vault (2017, 2018). Summer’s work has also been shown at St. Cloud State University (2019), The Art Center Dover (2020), The Skeleton Crawl Virtual Art Experience (2020), Parsons School of Design (2022, 2023), Lavan Chelsea (2023), BOND Hardware Studio (2023) and Uncool Gallery (2024). She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
