Elijah Wheat Showroom is delighted to present, Fool’s Journey, a solo exhibition of oil paintings referencing Tarot by Samantha Haring. The exhibition opens Saturday 1 August and runs through 7 September, 2026. The artist’s Fool's Journey is a new take on the 22 Major Arcana cards, symbolically explained in Haring’s quiet paintings with intimate meditations of humble objects. These careful, tender works relay a queer story of growth, from the Fool to the World. The Fool represents a protagonist beginning a transformative adventure filled with lessons from archetypes like the Magician, High Priestess, Empress, and Emperor. It mirrors life's stages and personal growth through symbolic encounters and challenges.

The artist’s studio is full of memory; its history is evident in the residue layered on the walls and floor, as well as in the dusty objects scattered around the room. These remnants serve as a metaphor for the imprints people leave behind on each other and on the world. By painting forgotten corners, blank expanses, and abandoned objects and aligning Major Arcana characters with them, Haring explores these single-object portraits of packing materials and other containers while contemplating the things artists use to fill empty space.

Bubble wrap, air pockets, and other kinds of recycled paper are temporary objects by design: they are intrinsically important while something is in transit, but immediately disposable once the destination is reached. These objects offer a literal form of cushioning, protection, or armor; yet when seen in isolation, they become as much about the space around them and the things unseen as they are about themselves. Making the invisible visible. Emptiness is an illusion. Even in silence, there is a tremendous amount of noise.

Haring's paintings tell stories. Each object she chooses to paint is a metaphor, and like tarot cards, they can be read in different ways far beyond the literal. A box becomes a hermit's quiet retreat. A curl of used paper becomes an unending wheel of fortune. A certain piece of wrapping paper evokes the joy of the sun. 

Every story starts with a single step into the unknown. In tarot, that moment is represented by the Fool — the card of beginnings, openness, and possibility. The Fool symbolizes the willingness to begin without certainty. It reflects the part of a person that is ready to move forward—even without a clear plan. The Fool is not defined by naivety but by openness. It represents potential, curiosity, and the courage to start.

Samantha Haring is a queer artist and educator from Des Plaines, Illinois. Haring earned her MFA from Northern Illinois University and her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They spent a summer in Italy at the International School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture; it was there that they fully developed their commitment to light, color, and observational painting. Haring was one of the 2015-16 Artists-in-Residence at Manifest Gallery, and she has taught drawing and design courses at the University of Cincinnati since 2016. Haring’s work is published in issues #119, #123, and #179 of New American Paintings, as well as in multiple recent Manifest INDA and INPA publications. They have work available with Kathryn Markel Fine Arts in New York, Southside Gallery in Mississippi, and Elijah Wheat Showroom in Beacon, NY. Her studio practice is currently based in Cincinnati, where she spends an inordinate amount of time analyzing the color of dust.