July 25 - August 23, 2025
SUMMER SALON, Part 1
Group Exhibition
July 25 - August 23, 2025
Evoke’s Summer Salon 2025 continues the long tradition of salons as catalysts for artistic dialogue and intellectual exchange. Bringing together a diverse group of artists— each exploring themes of identity, history, and transformation—the exhibition unfolds as a visual conversation, guiding viewers through an intricate interplay of styles, materials, and ideas. From Thomas Vigil’s raw and poignant urban iconography to Kristine Poole’s figurative sculptures layered with sociocultural commentary, the show juxtaposes past and present, tradition and rebellion. Francis DiFronzo’s haunting landscapes of rusting boxcars whisper stories of time’s passage, while Jeremy Mann’s intimate forest studies evoke a contemplative solitude. Michael Scott and Nathan Budoff, in turn, remind us of the fragility of the natural world, weaving narratives of adaptation and survival. Curated with intentionality, Summer Salon is more than an exhibition; it is a dynamic space where art and discourse converge, inviting reflection, conversation, and discovery—just as salons have done for centuries.
Front cover: Thomas Couture, Los Romanos de la Decadencia (detail), 1847, oil on linen, 186” x 304”
Photo: Museo de Orsay, Paris, France.
Back cover: Kristine poole, Fragility of the Mind , polychromed fired clay, 32” x 14” x 22”. See page 67 for details.
See page 68 for details.
Kristine poole, The Monkey , polychromed fired clay, 27” x 22” x 14”.
Nathan Budoff
Born and raised in Massachusetts, he has developed his art and his career in the vital and passionate art community of San Juan, Puerto Rico. His recent work imagines spaces and relationships, often unexpected, focusing on flora and fauna. After finishing his studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Budoff received a Fulbright Fellowship, and upon completing this year-long grant he established himself in Puerto Rico.
Nathan Budoff in his studio.
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Nathan Budoff, Around the Bear, oil, charcoal, shellac ink on cloth, 68” x 52”.
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Nathan Budoff, L ike Stars in the Sky, charcoal, shellac ink and acrylic on canvas, 60” x 60”.
Esha Chiocchio
Afilmmaker and photographer, Esha Chiocchio uses her combined knowledge of visual storytelling, anthropology and sustainable communities to weave narratives about land, culture, and climate solutions.Through her work, she strives to sow the seeds of social change and increase awareness of the unique strategies being employed to restore balance to terrestrial and atmospheric cycles on overused land.
Chiocchio is a National Geographic Explorer who has photographed for publications, non-profits, and commercial clients, including National Geographic Magazine, High Country News, Edible, Newsweek, Jardins du Monde, and Bonefish Grill. Her work has been exhibited in the US and overseas, including in France, South Korea, Mali and Washington DC. She has Bachelor of Arts degrees in Anthropology and French from the University of Colorado, a Master of Arts in Sustainable Communities from Goddard College and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali, West Africa. She currently lives and works in New Mexico.
Esha Chiocchio .
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Esha Chiocchio, Curación, 2021 , pigment print with Moon Gold leaf on archival Mylar, edition of 3, 6” x 9”.
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Esha Chiocchio, Tree of Life, 2022 , pigment print with Moon Gold leaf on archival Mylar, edition of 3, 6” x 8”.
Francis DiFronzo
Francis DiFronzo creates highly realistic, delicately rendered and exquisitely detailed landscapes that oscillate between haunting beauty and existential loneliness. Working in oil over gouache and watercolor, his ethereal paintings combine the existent and the surreal as he explores desolate and mysterious scenes from his own imagination. Contrasting the deterioration of temporal things with the permanence of the landscape they are found in, the authenticity of these images beckons the viewer into an experience of story where feeling is more important than place.
DiFronzo was born in San Pedro, California in 1969. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting from California State University - Fullerton and a Master of Fine Arts from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He has been awarded both the prestigious Stobbart Foundation Fellowship in the Arts and the Pew Fellowship in the Arts. DiFronzo’s acclaimed works are exhibited nationally and are included in prestigious private collections throughout the United States. He currently lives and works in California.
Francis DiFronzo.
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Francis DiFronzo, Scattered Light, Part 3, oil over gouache and watercolor on panel, 36” x 66”.
Francis DiFronzo, Inland Empire, Part 9 , oil on panel, 31” x 25”.
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Irene Hardwicke Olivieri
Irene Hardwicke Olivieri’s enchanting, idiosyncratic and curiously complex artworks explore the subterranean aspects of life - love and relationships, secrets and obsessions, existence and ephemerality - allegorizing challenges and discoveries encountered on life’s journey. Infinitely inspired by the natural world, her paintings often incorporate handwritten texts that combine detailed descriptions of the appearance and habits of closely observed flora and fauna. An ongoing theme in her work is re-wilding the heart, to elicit a deeper connection to wild animals and wild lands. Primarily a painter, she also creates mixed media artworks out of found and natural objects, including cholla cactus, wood, metal and bones, bringing things from the past into new life.
Olivieri was born in the Rio Grande valley of Texas and moved to Brazil in her late teens. She lived in Mexico, New York. Oregon, Arizona and Maine before finally settling in Santa Fe, NM. Olivieri studied at Escola de Artes Visuais, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Insituto Allende, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico prior to receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas, Austin, TX and her Master of Arts from New York University, New York, NY. Her artworks have been extensively exhibited and are included in notable collections and publications around the country. She currently lives and works in New Mexico.
Irene Hardwicke Olivieri in her studio.
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Irene Hardwicke Olivieri, Afternoon with the Badgers, oil on clay board, 24” x 30”.
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Irene Hardwicke Olivieri, Las Gatitas, oil on clay board, 18” x 24”.
Irene Hardwicke Olivieri Come
Come collect the cactus fruit, I’ll write the poem, oil on ponderosa pine with teddy bear cholla cactus skeletons, rusty metal, 25” x 41”.
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Nicholas Herrera
Known as El Rito Santero (the Saint Maker of El Rito), Nicholas Herrera creates retablos, bultos, sculptures and large-scale mixed media works delving into personal identity, family history, relationship to place, and political ideology. Herrera is notably prolific, his oeuvre diverse, ranging from contemporary interpretations of saints, crucifixes and death figures to idyllic New Mexican pastoral scenes. Complementing his history of generations-long artistic traditions, he also fearlessly reflects on modern concerns such as police brutality, drug culture and the dangers of nuclear power.
Herrera’s family was among the earliest settlers in the region. He grew up around the Spanish traditions of Northern New Mexico and came of age with a fastpaced lifestyle that resulted in a serious car accident at the age of 26. After awakening in the hospital and recovering from a coma, Herrera felt called to become a saint maker. He has since become one of the most revered folk artists in the United States. His art is featured in over 40 museums worldwide, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Nicholas has also been referenced or written about in hundreds of books and publications, including two biographies. He has also received numerous awards and recognition, including the 2006 Award of Distinction from the Folk Art Society of America. Still a “village artist,” Herrera continues to reside, regenerate, and create on the land of his family in New Mexico.
Nicholas Herrera in his studio.
Nicholas Herrera, Corazon de los Antepasados, recylcled metal, 38” x 33”.
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Nicholas Herrera, Cargando los Caballos, acrylic on hand carved wood, 35” x 38”.
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Jeremy Mann
Dramatic and masterfully rendered, Jeremy Mann’s evocative paintings give visual form to the emotive essence of contemporary life in a modern city. Featuring brilliant highlights and confident, gestural strokes, Mann confronts the boundaries between noncontrolled marks and representation. This deeply expressive visual language translates deftly into alluring figurative works, in which solitary female figures nestle within sultry and moody interior spaces, evincing self-reflection, authenticity and candor while complementing the excitement, grit and vitality of his urban landscapes.
Jeremy Mann earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts with honors in painting from Ohio University and his Master of Fine Arts from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, graduating as Valedictorian. Boasting a massive global following, his work is exhibited both nationally and internationally. His paintings have featured prominently in a wide variety of publications and a documentary by filmmaker Loic Zimmerman entitled A Solitary Mann . Mann continues to create paintings, drawings, photography, and film in Spain.
Jeremy Mann in his studio.
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Jeremy Mann, A Place I stopped along the Path to Town , oil on papered panel, 5” x 4”.
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Jeremy Mann, The top of Carreterra de Santa Fe Trail #2 , oil on papered panel, 5” x 4”.
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Jeremy Mann, Clouds after the storm , oil on papered panel, 4” x 5”.
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Jeremy Mann, Clouds before the storm , oil on papered panel, 4” x 5”.
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Jeremy Mann, The Mediterranean-Liefranc #2 , oil on papered panel, 4” x 5”.
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Jeremy Mann, The Mediterranean-Liefranc #6 , oil on papered panel, 4” x 5”.
Louisa McElwain
1953 - 2013
Louisa McElwain’s abstracted landscapes are characterized by her dynamic use of color and bold strokes of thick paint applied with velocity, expressive delicacy and sensuous impasto. As much about the paint itself as they are about the motif, the marks, strokes, and gestures express forces of nature, both internal and external.
Deeply fascinated by the ever-changing climate of the Southwest, McElwain immersed herself in nature and incorporated the region’s powerful elements into her paintings. Before a storm, she was known to pack up her pick-up truck with her painting materials and set out to find the best spot for what she called a dialogue with nature. She would create a makeshift armature mounted on the back of her truck, staple a large canvas to it and then simply paint what she saw. Profoundly connected to the beauty around her and intuitively attuned to the physicality of her materials, she was able to say something honest, deep and true about her experience of Nature, creating paintings that gratify the mind and nourish the soul.
McElwain studied at Mount Holyoke College, The Tyler School of Art and the Nera Simi Drawing Studio in Europe prior to earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania. At the prestigious Skowhegan School in Maine, her passion for landscape painting flourished. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards and honors and can be found in many prominent public, private, and corporate collections throughout the world, including the Phoenix Art Museum, the Tia Collection, the Tucson Museum of Art and American Embassies in Columbia, Bahrain, Yemen and Singapore.
Louisa McElwain.
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Louisa McElwain, Ecclesia , oil on canvas, 50” x 70”.
Louisa McElwain, Cañada Frijoles 1990 , oil on canvas, 34” x 46”.
Jeremy Miranda
Exploring memory and landscape through complex spacial environments hovering between interior and exterior worlds, Jeremy Miranda’s paintings reveal quotidian beauty. Primarily inspired by experiences within a 5-mile radius of his studio, when Miranda feels a connection to a place, he uncovers an entire universe hidden within plain sight. His intentionally restrained color palette combines with his unique ability to capture moments in time, in everyday life to create an experience of the sublime concealed within the ordinary.
Miranda was born in 1980 and grew up in Middletown, Rhode Island. He graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Massachusetts College of Art. Miranda’s paintings have been featured in numerous galleries and museums and have been reviewed in publications including Colossal and Fine Art Connoisseur. He currently lives and works in Southern Maine.
Jeremy Miranda.
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Jeremy Miranda, New Dust, acrylic on panel, 20” x 17”.
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Jeremy Miranda, Ben’s Moon, acrylic on canvas, 20” x 17”.
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Jeremy Miranda, Drift, acrylic on panel, 20” x 17”.
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Jeremy Miranda, End of Day, acrylic on panel, 20” x 17”.
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Jeremy Miranda, Crab Apple, acrylic on panel, 20” x 17”.
Gugger Petter
Born in Denmark, and having been inspired by living and working in Italy, Mexico, Belgium and the United States, Gugger Petter’s newspaper art has become “a diary” of her life, each piece constructed with newsprint reflecting a moment in time.
Petter has worked with newspaper as her medium for over twenty years. “My fascination with newspaper consists not only of it being ‘the diary of our lives,’ but it also presents me with a black, white, and limited color palette, which has always been my choice.” Using a traditional loom to weave tightly rolled strips of newspaper, Petter’s work is a larger-than-life look at aspects or people of our daily lives. “My work can be seen as an abstraction as well as a representational image, where surface, subject matter, color and content all convey tension between opposites.”
Gugger Petter in her studio.
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Gugger Petter, Woman with Titian Colored Hair #2 , mixed media, 39” x 30”.
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Gugger Petter, Female Head/Ritratto #35 , newspaper/mixed media, 8” x 6.25”.
Gugger Petter, Female Head/Ritratto #29 , mixed media / newspaper, 7.25” x 6.25”.
Kristine Poole
Kristine Poole’s work explores themes centered on sociocultural experience. Her sensitive sculptural approach to the figure allowing the inner emotional landscape to be revealed through the external forms of the body. Contrasting classically rendered figures with contemporary motifs and surface treatments, she frequently juxtaposes body language, posture and attitude with text, layering the strength of gesture with the power words to create and define reality and experience.
Poole received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Northern Michigan University, graduating Summa Cum Laude with a concentration in ceramic sculpture. She then apprenticed with master ceramist John Glick.
Kristine Poole in her studio.
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Kristine poole, Fragility of the Mind , polychromed fired clay, 32” x 14” x 22”.
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Kristine poole, The Monkey , polychromed fired clay, 27” x 22” x 14”.
Michael Scott
Conjuring meditations on the transformative power of nature, Michael Scott’s landscape paintings reverberate with psychological depths and mystical symbolism. Originating from a sense of wonder, rather than direct representation, his works reveal the miraculous in the unobserved phenomena of the forests, plains, and mountains. Drawing from memory, archetypes and his own explorations, Scott highlights the influence of the four fundamental elements of earth, air, water and fire to offer an innovative perspective on America’s wilderness. His immense works, many up to ten feet tall, offer a place where the natural world, the human world and the world of the spirit can commingle.
Michael Scott received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute, a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Cincinnati and completed a prestigious Skowhegan painting fellowship. Scott’s artwork has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions including the 41st Corcoran Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting. The subject of various critical reviews, catalogues and publications, his paintings are in prestigious private, corporate and public collections, including the Art Museum of South Texas, Butler Institute of American Art, Cincinnati Art Museum, Hunter Museum of Art, J.B. Speed Museum, Museum of the Southwest, New Orleans Museum of Arts, Southern Ohio Museum of Art and the Tia Collection among others. His fascination for the West led him to Santa Fe where he currently lives and works.
Michael Scott in his studio.
Origin of Species, oil on linen on panel, 120” x 120”.
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Frozen Geyser, Yellowstone, oil on linen on panel, 78” x 52”.
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Melting of the Ice Cave, oil on linen on panel, 56” x 78”.
Thomas Vigil
Layering ecclesiastical iconography, cultural commentary and historical images against the backdrop of contemporary urban living, Thomas Vigil’s paintings connect street art to fine art. He creates a harmony between cultural religious beliefs and controversial Lowbrow Art forms. Combining graffiti with figurative imagery on recycled street signs, license plates and other found objects, Vigil’s striking visual juxtapositions are a unique way of expressing his spirituality and belief in creating art for art’s sake.
Vigil received his Associate’s Degree from Northern New Mexico College. His award-winning paintings were the focus of a New Mexico PBS ‘Colores” television interview and have been featured in numerous publications, galleries and museums including the History Colorado Center, the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art and the New Mexico Hispanic Cultural Center. His work is included in private collections of note around the country.
Thomas Vigil in his studio.
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Thomas Vigil, Mad Max , mixed media, 36” x 30”.
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Thomas Vigil, Benny Badass, mixed media, 24” x 18”.
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