Panopticon Gallery celebrates the spirit of summer with color and whimsy in Flight of Fancy. The human imagination has a tendency to soar beyond reality into the sublime. Fanciful notions and imaginative ideas are on display in this group show featuring works by Claire Rosen, Stephen Sheffield, and Kerry Mansfield.

Claire Rosen’s photographs of exotic live birds against ornamental wallpaper explore the contradictory nature of possessing something wild. The images become fanciful illustrations of artificiality—a testament to humankind’s wild imagination. Stephen Sheffield’s mid-century inspired collages contrast the idyllic and scientific. Evocative of old Hollywood glamour, images of stylish magazine men and women are layered over architectural diagrams, electrical circuits, and sheet music.

The brightly colored hang gliders against clear blue skies in Kerry Mansfield’s dream-like photographs elicit a sense of adventure and whimsy. Reversing her perspective in aerial views of coastal California, her figures perch on thresholds: wading out into the water and flying out of frame. Impractical and imaginative, Flight of Fancy navigates the surreal landscape of romanticism.