The new Elisa Contemporary Art Gallery exhibit, Summer in the City, opens June 5 at the Elisa Contemporary Art Riverdale Gallery. This Summer group show focuses on architecture and cityscapes. The show will run though September 18 (open in August by appointment only). Summer in the City features the artwork of Turkish artist, Yasemin Kackar-Demirel, Connecticut artist, Dale Najarian and Hawaii artist, Jason Wright.

The brightly color abstract cityscapes of Yasemin Kackar Demirel are composed of buildings and structures, both real and imagined from around the world. She often incorporates interior and exterior architectural elements such as ceiling views, archways, windows of museums, restaurants, galleries, coffee shops, concert halls and theaters into her art. According to Kackar-Demirel, “I am drawn to the idea of capturing the infiniteness of constructions in land and in urban life with a grounded sense of freedom, controlled yet uninhibited.”

The exhibit features three Cityscape Shadow series paintings by Dale Najarian. This latest series merges the realistic quality of a photograph with the abstract translation of a landscape to depict a dreamlike painting that draws you in. Najarian is fascinated by the perspective that shadows create in our daily lives and uses people’s movements to capture the ever-changing relationship between dark and light. The paintings focus on the movement between people and urban buildings.

Hawaii artist, Jason Wright contrasts the soft lines of the sky against the hard lines of the earth to create his complex perspectives. The results are startlingly haunting skylines and visionary landscapes. These pared down images are portrayed in a graphic style with precise shapes, bold lines and intense colors. Layer by layer using a palette knife, he provides just enough detail in his play on the theory of shelter and landscapes.