'Horizons,' the Mary Hinson Flower Show featuring the art of Brian Rutenberg, begins April 17 with preview party

Sumter County Gallery of Art, the Deane and Roger Ackerman Family Fund and the Council of Garden Clubs of Sumter are pleased to present the preview party for “Horizons” – Sumter’s exhibition and flower show, featuring the mysterious and color-saturated Lowcountry scenes of artist Brian Rutenberg. The Mary Hinson Flower Show opens with a ticketed event Thursday, April 17, from 6 to 8 p.m. It will be an evening of stunning beauty with 16 regional floral designers responding to Rutenberg’s paintings in the Ackerman Gallery. This will be a judged flower show. Delicious food will be created by Loosh Culinaire Fine Catering, with spirits by locally owned Toast Bartending. Music will be provided by world-renowned guitarist Amos Hoffmann. Brian Rutenberg and Mary and Jerald Melberg will be in attendance.

Rutenberg, a Myrtle Beach native, is widely considered to be one of the finest American painters of his generation. Rutenberg has spent 40 years honing a distinctive method of compressing the rich color and form of his native coastal South Carolina into complex landscape paintings that imbue material reality with a deep sense of place. Rutenberg says, especially inspiring is that point when the land meets the water and for a moment the two become blurred – the horizon. Rutenberg’s paintings seethe with the familiar yet foreign components of the Lowcountry – moist, heavy air, nightcrawlers, pluff mud, ancient trees and the everchanging South Carolina coast.

This elegant event – combining fine art, floral design, fine food and spirits, and music, is special for Sumter. The Sumter County Gallery of Art and Council of Garden Clubs of Sumter have worked hard to make this exhibition-based flower show a reality.

This special exhibition would not be possible without the significant support of the Jerald Melberg Gallery, Charlotte, and the Council of Garden Clubs of Sumter, and our community sponsors: The Deane and Roger Ackerman Family Fund, Thompson Turner Construction Group, Smith Robinson Law, Carolina Concierge Care, Jones Chevrolet and Patricia and Michael Fernandez.

Tickets are still available online at sumtergallery.com/horizons-art-in-bloom-the-mary-hinson-flower-show/ or call (803) 775-0543 to purchase by phone, or pay at the door.