Imagine strolling at sunset through an American desert: the sky ablaze with shades of pink, orange, and purple, while the absolute silence blends with the soft rustle of the wind against the rocks. This is where Sol Summers, an emerging artist from Los Angeles, found his muse—a love for the raw and unforgiving desert that blossoms in his paintings like an unexpected cactus flower.  

At the upcoming Untitled Art Fair in Miami, running from December 4th to 8th, Sol Summers will present PARHELION, a new series of works that feels like an ode to the desert, to time, and to resilience.  
The star of the series? The cactus. But don’t think of it as just a spiny plant: for Summers, the cactus is a symbol of quiet strength, thriving and surviving under the harshest conditions.  

His paintings don’t simply depict nature—they delve into the intimate relationship between humans and the landscape. Vibrant tones, reminiscent of the masterpieces of great landscape painters like Albert Bierstadt, transform the desert into an almost mystical realm, where every shadow and reflection seems to hold ancient secrets.  

The series title, PARHELION, refers to an optical phenomenon that creates the illusion of multiple suns in the sky. This parhelion magic is mirrored in Summers’ paintings: there’s something hypnotic in the twilight light enveloping his scenes, making the familiar extraordinary.  

Each painting is a love story with the landscape, an invitation to look beyond the apparent desolation and find beauty in the small things. His cacti are solitary warriors, but also guardians of universal strength. The sand, the sky, the explosive colors—everything in Summers’ work reminds us that the desert is not a void but a place full of possibilities.