High On Summertime 

Curator: At first glance, it’s almost saccharine—like a technicolor advertisement from the mid-20th century. Editor: Indeed. The piece we're looking at is called "High On Summertime" by Danny Galieote, painted using oil-paint and gouache techniques. It immediately recalls pin-up art of that period. Curator: The clear labor and manipulation of materials is central. How did Galieote build up the colors to achieve this very smooth, almost hyperreal finish? Is it brushwork alone, or does the painting process rely on tools and materials to remove some of the handmade nature of the scene? Editor: Good question. I find it interesting to consider the piece within the context of fantasy art, specifically how it appropriates the visual language of advertising, playing with idealized femininity for potentially critical purposes. Curator: Is it critical, though? Or is it complicit? The setting, this imagined beach with its artificial-looking palms and cheerful colors—feels fabricated, yet it’s also carefully crafted from a variety of commercial sources. I wonder about the impact of artistic labour on constructing such ideas. Editor: I think there’s a dialogue with historical representations. Note the “Beach” sign tucked away, seemingly mocking the notion of the tourist trap. And is that a Crush soda I spot in the painting? How far removed from genuine experiences of nature is what is being suggested by this image? Is this less about the beauty of the summer experience itself and more about the commodification of "summer vibes," through the visual economy? Curator: The labor to get a painting that evokes fantasy comes through when noting the sharp attention to details and the combination of two mediums here. It has this quality to it where it almost transcends the high/low art dialectic; its subject matter has low connotations in contrast to the expert use of medium to arrive at this conclusion. Editor: Looking at the artwork overall, I'm left wondering what it communicates about the consumption of images and the construction of our desires as audiences within an overtly manufactured environment. The bright colors invite you to look deeper, just to realize you have stepped into a cleverly constructed social mirage. Curator: And I'm interested in seeing a synthesis of low and high craft represented in this painting; with a very meticulous treatment given to its construction that transcends and disrupts a historical boundary.