albertz benda presents new landscape paintings by July Guzman and Sol Summers
July Guzman in the studio, Courtesy of the Artist.
LOS ANGELES, CA.—
albertz benda is presenting a two-artist exhibition of new landscape paintings by July Guzman and Sol Summers at its Los Angeles location. On view from October 1 through November 6, the exhibition places Guzman's seascapes in dialogue with Summers's paintings of the American West. Across distinct geographies and approaches, both artists use light, atmosphere, composition, and color to move between observed landscape and the perceptual habits through which place is seen.
Summers draws on landscapes across Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado, approaching the American West as both place and perceptual field. Atmospheric phenomena, lens flares, and saturated shifts at sunrise and sunset expose the idiosyncrasies of a visual language shaped by photography, including effects viewers become so acculturated to that they pass unnoticed. In dialogue with Arthur Wesley Dow and Agnes Pelton, Summers uses color, composition, and luminosity to make familiar terrain strange again.
Drawing on seascapes near Bolinas, California, Guzman returns repeatedly to the ocean while allowing each painting to develop on its own terms. The works range in degree of realism: some describe the detail and force of a breaking wave, while others distill the scene to light meeting a horizon. Rather than adhering to a fixed style, Guzman allows atmosphere to determine the form each view takes.
Seen together, Guzman's seascapes and Summers's landscapes of the American West reveal parallel ways of using light to unsettle the familiar. The exhibition considers how atmosphere, composition, memory, and learned habits of seeing give each view its distinct identity and determine what remains visible or slips from notice.
Born in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2001, July Guzman lives and works in Bolinas, California. His paintings draw on the coastal landscape of Northern California, using light and atmosphere to explore the shifting experience of place. Recent solo exhibitions include Along the Line, 1969 Gallery, New York, NY (2024) and Pacific Sirens, Wolf Hill Arts, Chappaqua, NY (2024). His work has also been included in exhibitions at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, UT (2026); MarinMOCA, San Rafael, CA (2025; 2024); Rusha & Co., Los Angeles, CA (2025); and Galería Karen Huber, Mexico City, Mexico (2024). guzman_summers_press-release
Born in Portland, Oregon in 1996, Sol Summers lives and works in Los Angeles and studied at the Rhode Island School of Design. Rooted in realism, his landscape paintings use a heightened palette and manipulated light to transform the deserts and mountains of the American West into a terrain seen through the filter of its mythology. His work has been exhibited at Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA (2023); Rusha & Co., Los Angeles, CA (2023); and albertz benda, Los Angeles, CA (2022). Summers has also been featured in Odalisque Magazine, Autre Magazine, Whitehot Magazine, Metal Magazine, and Elle Décor.
