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NIGHTSWIMMING

A GROUP EXHIBITION

3/4/26-5/23/26





Above: Kristin Martincic - Silver Life Vest, oil-based ink on Japanese paper, poly-fill, stitching

The Weather Station is pleased to present Nightswimming, a group exhibition opening March 4th, on view through May 23rd. Featuring new and recent work by Bill Conger, Olivia Jia, Micah Lexier, Kristin Martincic, Jacinda Russell, Casey Roberts, Andrew Schwartz and Julie Wills, Nightswimming explores the act of swimming after dark alternately as a space for potential, abandon, invention and decadence. Inaugurating the gallery's fourth year of programming, Nightswimming is the gallery's first-ever group exhibition, curated by Brian Hitselberger.

Nightswimming opens with two works by Missouri-based artist Kristin Martincic, whose pieces in the exhibition incorporate monoprinted Japanese papers, which the artist has carefully folded and stitched to create a life vest and a swimsuit. Somehow simultaneously delicate and strong, these works immediately establish a tone for the exhibition - framing swimming as a generative activity for a creative practice while also demanding of a kind of body awareness. With My Morning Swim, a zine by Toronto-based artist Micah Lexier, the swimmer's movements are neatly catalogued, hieroglyph-like, against the flat, pale blue of the page. My Morning Swim documents the artist's practice of laps at a local community pool, and pulses with the repetition of a daily habit. By removing any other context other than the body of the swimmer, Lexier's figure becomes a kind of everyman - his morning laps becoming our own. Were this swimmer to look up, he might see something like the luminous Stargazer, Andrew Schwartz's luminous abstract painting. Eschewing entirely the use brushes in his process, Schwartz's fluid compositions suggest a depth of field, bioluminescence, and the night sky viewed through water all at once. Around the corner in Olivia Jia's intimately-scaled oil painting, an anonymous figure lit by moonlight contemplates the stars.


Above:  Andrew Schwartz -  Stargazer, Acrylic on panel, 30 × 24 inches, 2024

Initially becoming interested in the exhibition's subjects through his own life as a swimmer, Hitselberger's fascination deepened when he began to note references to swimming in literature and films - often as an image employed to suggest self-definition, reinvention, or flirtation with risk. "And swimming at night is an especially powerful experience," he adds. "Without being able to see clearly, the body has to rely on its other senses." In Nightpool, Bill Conger's subtle found-object sculpture, the decadence of swimming in the dark is neatly evoked by a round, floating pool of Merlot atop an inverted wineglass. Swimming also seems to inspire the impulse to catalogue, or act as way to connect disparate experiences. The catalogue as a document is central to Jacinda Russell's Tucson Swimming Pool Specimens, 2024-ongoing, which collects samples from every pool that the artist swims in from her new home in Arizona. As the piece is ongoing, Russell's specimens will continue to accrue during this exhibition, as pool season in Tucson reaches its peak.



Above:  Documentation of Jacinda Russell's Tucson pool specimen collection. Photograph by Kelli Connell.

For years, Indianapolis-based artist Casey Roberts has incorporated the cyanotype process into his works on paper, manipulating a technique traditionally associated with photography to create his distinct collage-paintings. By exposing his prepared drawings to the sun, his marks, washes and stencils bloom into a range of deep, rich blues. His landscapes - often night scenes - are paradoxical: they render moonlight through the use of the sun. For Nightswimming, he returns to a solitary figure bathing in open water - a motif explored by the artist in earlier series. Moon Ladder, a text piece by Baltimore-based artist Julie Wills also revisits previous work. Installed just opposite the door of the gallery and visible upon exiting the space, Wills' Moon Ladder asks to be read from the ground up, acting as a kind of exit for the viewer - a ladder at the edge of the later to pull ourselves back onto land.



Above:  Casey Roberts - almost neck deep (wabash river), cyanotype w/acrylic on paper, 35 x 42 inches, 2026

For this exhibition, The Weather Station will collaborate with Two Steps Press to a create a limited-edition artist publication, documenting the exhibtion and further exploring themes underlying each artist's practice. For this project Toronto-based writer Sarah Feldbloom has contributed an essay on the relationships between writing and water, exploring the ways she has used her own daily swimming habits to further engage with her work.
Participating Artists:

Bill Conger
Olivia Jia
Micah Lexier
Kristin Martincic
Jacinda Russell
Casey Roberts
Andrew Schwartz
Julie Wills



Above:  Nightswimming Installation 



Above:  Nightswimming Installation



Above:  Nightswimming Installation



Above:  Nightswimming Installation



Above:  Nightswimming Installation with paper swimsuit by Kristin Martincoc



Above: Kristen Martincic - V-neck pin-stripe skin suit.
Relief & trace monotype printed with oil-based ink on inshu mitsumata, constructed with stitching & nori paste, 25 x 16.5 x 0.5 in



Above: Olivia Jia - Untitled (Adrienne Stargazing), Oil paint on panel, 7 x 5 in



Above: Installation shot with Stargazer by Andrew Schwartz



Above: Bill Conger - Nightpool, long-stemmed wineglass, merlot 


Above: Casey Roberts - Almost neck deep (wabash river), cyanotype w/acrylic on paper, 35 x 42 inches



Above : Micah Lexier - My Morning Swim, black and white photocopy, 100 copies, 7.8" x 5.5"




Above : Micah Lexier - My Morning Swim, black and white photocopy, 100 copies, 7.8" x 5.5”




Above: Jacinda Russell - Tucson Swimming Pool Specimens 2024-ongoing, glass bottles with lids, water, dimensions variable




Above: Julie Wills - Moon Ladder, vinyl, dimensional variable 




Above: Julie Wills - Moon Ladder (detail), vinyl, dimensional variable 



Above: Julie Wills - Moon Ladder (detail), vinyl, dimensional variable


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