SUMMER MCCLINTON (b. 1976) is an award-winning oil painter, comic book artist and printmaker. Her perpetual mix of existing artistic styles and streetscape vernacular elements combine to create a new genre which defies categorization; thereby increasing and enhancing the total pool of existing sources of influence on future perspectives.**
McClinton studied printmaking and political science in Madison, Wisconsin before moving to New York City in 1999. Her early works were influenced by her participation in the turn of the century NYC graffiti scene. Drawing on her experiences, she and her friend Emily Benz translated their vision of the city into the comic book Thread. Winning the Xeric Award in 2005, this book became her introduction to the world of underground comics.
Anti-establishment, independent and “looking nothing like a comic and yet ideally suited to the medium”, McClinton’s work began to attract the attention of like minded comic book writers. Most notably, she illustrated works by Harvey Pekar, including two long-form graphic novels On The Fly and The Unrepentant Marxist. Since his death, she continues to work on books whose themes include persistent humanism and the integrity of the underdog.
Throughout this period, McClinton was steadily producing oil paintings. With color schemes informed by graffiti and skate culture, the paintings referenced Flatbush and the characters living there. She exhibited with the Subculture gallery in Soho, and supported herself by working at Cooper Union, waitressing and selling work privately. After moving from Flatbush to Harlem, she was accepted into the Chashama studio residency program.
In 2011, McClinton collaborated with her sister, Cinnamon Kennedy, to produce “Fame Spa Mind Salon" an immersive experience designed to produce the sensation of fame. Constructed as an absurdist beauty salon, the spa featured a sequence of sensory experiences encountered via art objects, pastry, movement and video. "Fame Spa" was installed near Times Square with the participation of Chashama and the Andy Warhol Foundation.
In the same year, McClinton began painting portraits of anonymous individuals apprehended by police and photographed for public record. Both connective and alienating, McClinton's Mugshot Skateboards became her longest series to date. They were exhibited in the spring of 2019 by the Glenn Allen Gallery and received the BRIO Award for painting in 2023.
Currently living in the Bronx, she is creating a series of monotypes at the Bob Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. These works explore forms that emerge without intent, signifying passive realization, along with forms that repeat, indicating memory. She continues to support herself through private sales and by illustrating graphic novels that feature underrepresented historical figures engaged in the ongoing fight for social justice.