Because, now is the time of monsters, our 2026 Summer Exhibition, features 39 artists in and around Maxon Mills throughout the summer. Our show's title points back to Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks, written from a fascist prison cell, where he described the interregnum, the space between a dying world and one not yet born, as fertile ground for opportunists and monsters alike. That prism splits our own moment too: what was whole comes apart, and what fills the spaces between is yet to be determined. The artists in this show have answered from somewhere inside it. Among the works shown are Tim Olson's illuminated wooden constructions staging the seven deadly sins and heavenly virtues inside American motels and beauty academies; large-scale cyanotype prints by Tamsen Wojtanowski where shadowy figures and creatures drift between worlds above and below ground; an enormous inflatable sculpture of teeth and gums by Magicfeifei; Matthew Cronin's photographs of constructed domestic interiors where lattice, florals, and shuttered light make the familiar feel like a half-remembered dream; Kelly Cox's ceramic bear traps and mousetraps in muted pastels; Heejo Kim's paintings where entire galaxies spiral inside coffee cups held by unseen hands; and Vanessa Villareal's denim quilt portraits stitched with the weight of devotion and lineage. Floor by floor, the show builds into something between a vision and a fever dream. Because, now is the time of monsters.
Artists