Christopher Lane: “Circle of Life”

& The Sumter Artists’ Guild Winners Exhibition

The Sumter County Gallery of Art is proud to present Christopher Lane, “Circle of Life” and the annual Sumter Artists’ Guild Winners exhibitions.

Christopher Lane was born in Minnesota in 1968. He spent his formative years inspired by regional artists Thomas Hart Benton, Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Roy Lichtenstein. His early teenage years were spent in Egypt where his work was influenced by the great architecture, sculpture, hieroglyphs, and the expressive colors used in Egyptian painting. After completing high school, he spent a year in Paris, which fueled his creative instincts. He returned to the States and pursued an art degree at Eastern New Mexico University but left to support his young family while serving in the Navy. Christopher has made his home in South Carolina where he continues to use fantastic imagery to turn his life experiences into visual stories that primarily focus on people and their relationships with one another. Employing flora and fauna, Lane’s stories often feature historical, political, or spiritual narratives as Christopher is passionate about these subjects. Christopher is a modern Surrealist and a storyteller. Each painting can be broken down into several separate “chapters” or scenes yet are cohesive in theme. He uses vivid colors, lush symbolism, and double imagery to illustrate divisive topics, allowing the viewer to see them through a new, softer lens.

For the last ten years, Christopher has created unity themed oil and acrylic paintings and presented them in multiple galleries in both group and solo exhibitions. He has been in many of South Carolina’s most prominent group exhibitions including The South Carolina Watermedia Society Exhibition, The Koger Center in Columbia, Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County and Artfields. Lane is currently featured in a group exhibition at The Holy Art Gallery in London. The Sumter County Gallery of Art is honored to present Christopher Lane’s first institutional solo exhibition, “Circle of Life”. It is an exhibition that illustrates how we are all interconnected.

The Annual Sumter Artists’ Guild Winners Show is the perfect cold weather antidote! The judge for the 2022 Sumter Artists’ Guild Exhibition was Kyle Coleman, former Sumter Gallery Education Director and currently Fine Arts Manager at ArtFields in Lake City, SC, picked a stellar group of winners. Best in Show went to first time winner, Linda Beard for her amazing watercolor of a crashing wave “Wild and Free”, First Place winner was Barbara Dunn Rowe for her mysterious clay sculpture “Sinister Masquerade”, Second Place winner was Olivia Cardello Tucker (the youngest winner in Guild Show history, for her exquisite metal and ink sculpture, ”The Family Tree”, Third Place winner was Carolita Cantrell for her impressive oil painting, “Searching Twilight”. As always, we had three excellent Honorable Mention winners – Jane Hray’s delicately embroidered, “Erin’s Afternoon at The Flower Shop”, Jenna Binion’s autobiographical photocollage “Just Sleep When the Baby Sleeps”, and Kerry Strathman’s small but mighty oil painting of a spirited horse “Feeling It”. The Peoples’ Choice award announced at the end of the exhibition was worth the wait with Julie Watts’s retro Holiday Inn sign “Get A Room” taking home the prize. Together all these artists promise a high-quality Winners Show.

Please join us for the opening reception of “Christopher Lane – Circle of Life” and the Sumter Artists’ Guild Winners Show Thursday, January 19th, 5:30-7:30 pm. The opening reception is sponsored by the Sumter Artists’ Guild and the flowers are courtesy of Poinsett Garden Club & the Council of Garden Clubs of Sumter. We are grateful of the continued support of the Williams-Brice-Edwards Charitable Trust, Sumter County Government, and the South Carolina Arts Commission. Masks are recommended.