Chloe Summerhayes
(B. 1992)
Chloe Summerhayes lives and works in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Utilising drawing and painting methods, she explores notions of theatricality and bodily consciousness. Allowing corporeal limitations such as failure and intuition to lead the way, her work often references the romantic and phantasmal history of painting while contending with the anxieties of the contemporary world.
Within her practice, Summerhayes examines conflict and friction as a generative creative force. Simultaneously, an investigation into the connections among spectacle, theatre and painting has occupied her for the four years following her graduation from the Ilam School of Fine Arts. Summerhayes references the stage often and is informed by antiquated, less sophisticated technologies of theatre. These motifs function as a metaphor for the inevitable clumsiness of being human.
Paintings are rarely resolved without shifting drastically from how they began; she builds up layers slowly through addition, erasure and reworking. Depictions of mundanity colliding with theatricality reoccur throughout her work reflecting an ongoing preoccupation with the tension between nature and artifice.
Summerhayes is represented by Suite Gallery, Auckland
Recent exhibitions include:
Artist CV
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2022 Masters with Distinction in Fine Arts, University of Canterbury, Christchurch
2019 Bachelor of Fine Arts with First Class Honours, University of Canterbury, Christchurch
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2024 Catalogue, PG Gallery, Christchurch
2024 Swamp Opera, Suite Gallery, Wellington
2023 Stray, Chambers Art Gallery, Christchurch
2022 Unearthed, Chambers Art Gallery, Christchurch
2019 Dismantle, The Darkroom Gallery, Christchurch
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2025 Xmas’25, PG Gallery, Christchurch
2025 Chloe Summerhayes/Richard Elderton, Suite Gallery, Auckland
2025 The Same Coin, collaborative show, Ashburton Art Gallery, Ashburton
2023 Unearthly Delights, Suite Gallery, Auckland
2023 New Work, PG Gallery, Christchurch
2023 Xmas ’23, PG Gallery, Christchurch
2022 Dancing by Myself, Shepperson Education Centre, Waiheke Island
2021 Re Surface, student series group show, Ilam Campus Gallery, Christchurch
2021 Solo for a Body, dance work by Alice Weber, Otautahi Tiny Performance Fest, Ron Ball Studio, Christchurch Town Hall
2018 Quick Mysteries, Ilam Campus, Christchurch
2018 Preternatural, group show, Next Gallery, Christchurch
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2021 Recipient of Ethel Rose Overton Scholarship
2017 Recipient of Sawtell-Turner Prize in painting