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Signs of Life
works curated by Dylan Bannister & Alexis Howard

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Center for the Arts | Dalton Gallery
121 E. Main St. Rock Hill, SC

EXHIBITION

May 8 - June 13, 2026

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RECEPTION

Thursday, May 21, 2026

5:30 - 7:30 PM

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GALLERY HOURS

Monday - Saturday 

10 AM - 8 PM

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SPONSORED BY

O'Darby's Fine Wine & Spirits

Rock Hill Coca-Cola

Bottling Company

DALTON GALLERY

The multi-artist exhibit Signs of Life seeks to elevate commonplace spaces and objects as things of beauty. The curated artworks will focus on scenes that evoke thoughts of everyday human life, but without featuring any actual human figures.

EXHIBITION STATEMENT

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The world is filled with artifacts - the transient spaces, fixtures, nature, and light that we pass but don’t acknowledge as we move through the world. These are the signs which indicate human life, and they’re rarely seen or valued for any reason other than their utilitarian purposes.

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Signs of Life lifts the veil obscuring appreciation of the commonplace, and highlights the serendipitous beauty of everyday life. This exhibit challenges viewers to consider ordinary things - such as discarded furniture and parking lots - as spectacles, if one’s imagination is open to such an epiphany.

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Presented are unique views and experiences of the world as seen through the eyes of 15 contemporary artists based throughout the southeast, who all accept inspiration from the mundane. Their explorations are implemented through an array of media, including lens-based processes, sculptural forms, and installation works.

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Fellow artist friends of curators Dylan Bannister and Alexis Howard were invited to contribute works to make Signs of Life possible.

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FEATURED ARTISTS

 

DYLAN BANNISTER

Website | dylanbannister.com

Instagram | @dylanbannisterart

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REUBEN BLOOM

Website | reubenaverybloom.com

Instagram | @bloomordoom

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MICAH CASH

Website | micahcash.com

Instagram | @micahcash

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CARSON CARROLL

Website | carsoncarrollstudio.com

Instagram | @carsoncarrollart

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NICOLE DRISCOLL

Website | nicoledriscollfilms.com

Instagram | @nicoledfilms

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CALEB FLACHMAN

Website | calebflachman.com

Instagram | @calebflachmanstudio

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BRANDI FOX

Instagram | @brandi.voigt.fox

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BROOKE GIBBONS

Website | brookegibbons.com

Instagram | @brookeisfarout​

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ALEXIS HOWARD

Website | alexislorraine.com

Instagram | @alexislorraine_art​​​

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SUSAN JEDRZEJEWSKI

Website | susanjedrzejewski.com

Instagram | @sociallysusan​​​

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REBECCA JACOBS

Instagram | @breathinmyblood​

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ALEX LACEY

Website | lacey-productions.com

Instagram | @petulant.diva​

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NICK MCOWEN

Website | anotherphotosite.com

Instagram | @art.nickm

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​ZORAH OLIVIA

Website | zoraholivia.com

Instagram | @zoraholivia​

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KAREN SPEARS

Website | karen-spears.com

Instagram | @fareweatherstudio

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Zorah Olivia is a queer photographer whose lens centers the vibrant intersections of identity, energy, and emotion. Working across portraiture, music, movement, and subculture, her work captures how women—and queer lives—see and are seen, blending authenticity with visual nuance. With collaborations spanning Apple, Levi’s, Adidas, and HBO, Zorah’s practice is rooted in storytelling as empowerment: celebrating lived experience, challenging dominant narratives, and cultivating connection. A key contributor to the women’s skateboarding community, she documents and uplifts its athletes—helping redefine how they are represented in visual culture. Her work aligns with feminist and intersectional values—amplifying voices across LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and social justice communities. As a visual advocate for equity and visibility, Zorah doesn’t just frame moments—she reclaims space. Through her art, she asserts that women's vision is boundless, self-determined, and a force for change.'

McOwen's passion for photography emerged while touring the eastern United States with the band Bubonik Funk. What started as a way to document the eclectic experiences they encountered gradually evolved into something deeper—a method to synthesize the myriad people, places, and ideas that were shaping me. So, in drawing inspiration from the various avant-garde ‘isms’, McOwen began to shift how he viewed photography’s role from something simply to capture a moment into a tool that could express the unseen - something closer to the truth than, perhaps, the original photo could convey.

Alex Lacey documents eyesores and eye candy with pictures and poems— mainly couches and chairs on easements awaiting the landfill. He lives in Savannah, Georgia with his wife, hound and cat.

Rebecca's photography resides in a sense of place; of emotion; and the rich qualities of light, color and form. Whether tracing the boundaries of shadowed lines as they meander across a landscape, or chasing a subtle path of light as it shifts across a blank wall, she aims to translate for the viewer the fragile trembling of occurrences overlooked through regularity. “I see feelings in things, and want to bring the viewer into the experience and emotion that I encounter in these scenes in everyday life.” Born in Atlanta in 1991, Rebecca has lived in Rock Hill, S.C. for over fifteen years and graduated with her BFA in Photography from Winthrop University. Her work has been exhibited, awarded and sold in numerous exhibitions, including her solo show Porch Portraits at the Courtroom Gallery, Gettys Center, Rock Hill, S.C. in 2021, OFFBRAND at Goodyear Arts Charlotte, N.C. in 2019, ArtFields 2016 in Lake City, S.C., the student response show to Annie Leibovitz's exhibition Pilgrimage at the Columbia Museum, S.C. in 2013, the annual Juried Competition in Dalton Gallery, Rock Hill, S.C., and Click 646 at The Arts Center of Greenwood, S.C. in 2012, juried by National Geographic photographer Robb Kendrick.

Susan Jedrzejewski captures makeshift and coincidental encounters within the natural world. Using an intentionally imperfect process, patterns and forms emerge from the snapshot of a dynamic and ephemeral event. The resulting work, layered with competing dualities, recounts a physical act with nature, but also one’s distance from it. Her work has been exhibited regionally at McColl Center, Hodges Taylor, Goodyear Arts, ArtFields, Central Piedmont Community College, UNC Charlotte, Artspace, and Greensboro Project Space, and nationally at Florida State University Museum of Fine Art (Tallahassee, FL) and Treat Gallery (New York, NY), among others. She was awarded a Creative Mecklenburg Grant from the Arts & Science Council (2024), a Creative Growth Grant from the City of Charlotte (2025), and became a member of the ArtPop Street Art class of 2025. Susan received her BA in Studio Art from UNC Charlotte in 2006 and a MBA from Queens University of Charlotte in 2017. She lives and works in Charlotte, NC.

Alexis Howard is a fine artist based in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where she actively participates in her local arts community and maintains a studio space. Her work seeks to illuminate everyday moments, objects, and spaces, creating a narrative through installations, photo books, and mixed-media works. Alexis has exhibited her work across the Southeast, curated numerous exhibitions, and collaborated with a diverse range of artists to document their artwork and gallery exhibitions.

Brooke Gibbons, Familian Adiluk yan Cabrera ginen Talo’fo’fo, Guåhan (b. 1983, Tamuning, Guam) is a conceptual artist, independent curator, and scholar whose work is based on CHamoru futurism through cultural preservation, time study, decolonial archiving and digitization, and ongoing advocacy in the diaspora.

Brandi Voigt Fox is a Carolina based artist who uses natural elements and the broken cast offs of post industrial life to stand in for the inner life and relational complexities of humanity, and our landscapes in order to invite the viewer to contemplate their place within the cosmos.

Caleb Flachman is a street photographer working primarily with 35mm film. He is fascinated by people and is always searching for surreal, unscripted moments that spark curiosity and wonder. The images in this show, while they feature no figures, still suggest the haunting presence of people in the world.

Nicole Driscoll is a multidisciplinary artist based in Charlotte, working primarily with photography and video. Her practice explores identity, memory, and the emotional weight of personal and shared stories, using analog and experimental techniques to create layered visual narratives rooted in nostalgia and transformation. Her work has been exhibited at The Light Factory, Goodyear Arts, The Curated Fridge, and McColl Center. In 2023, her photograph Hands in the Sky was selected by ArtPop Street Gallery for public display across Charlotte and in Times Square. She was awarded the Emerging Creators Fellowship in 2024 and has completed artist residencies at Mudhouse (Greece) and Walkaway House (MA). Driscoll is a teaching artist at Studio 345, a free after-school program for youth, and continues her practice as a freelance artist in the Charlotte community.

Carson Carroll is an interdisciplinary artist and educator in Charleston, South Carolina. She received her BFA from Winthrop University and has studied at the Dunedin School of Art in New Zealand. Currently, she is creating monochromatic cyanotype paper collages composed of photogram cutouts of collected marine debris. Her paper collages of plastic utensils, bottle caps, and handheld flossers, comment on the issues of human consumption and plastic pollution and subvert the notion that to provoke positive change one must utilize the element of shock. Her pieces instead subtly motivate viewers toward environmental activism by pulling them in with beautiful but haunting imagery. Carroll has exhibited at the Redux Contemporary Art Center, Public Works Art Center, Art Fields, and domomu gallery. Her photographs and collages have been published in international publications including the MANIFEST: International Photography Annual, Shots Magazine, and MURZE Magazine. She placed first prize in Issue 8 of Manifest’s International Photography Annual, Photo District News's 2019 Portrait Photography Competition, and the New Media division of the 2021 North Charleston Arts Fest.

Micah Cash is a visual artist, educator, and nonprofit strategist. His projects use the visual languages of landscape and architecture to investigate narratives of culture, utilization, and economics. He has published two photography books, including the second edition of the internationally acclaimed Waffle House Vistas, published by The Bitter Southerner in 2022. His first monograph, Dangerous Waters: A Photo Essay on the Tennessee Valley Authority was published in 2017. Micah exhibits internationally, and his work is represented in private and public collections throughout North America and Europe. Micah received his MFA from the University of Connecticut and his bachelor’s degree from the University of South Carolina.

Reuben Bloom (b. 1986) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Atlanta GA. With a background in documentary photography, Bloom’s work has evolved into a form of mapping emotional and archetypal resonances. Influenced by Jungian theory, surrealist traditions, and the poetics of relational aesthetics, his images and objects function as psychic artifacts that explore how memory, intuition, and symbolic language shape our experience of place. Bloom’s work has been exhibited throughout the Southeast, including a solo exhibition at The Gibbes Museum of Art (Charleston, SC), and in 2024 he was named an Artadia Award finalist.

Dylan Bannister is a visual artist and arts advocate based in Rock Hill, SC exploring memory, nostalgia, and liminality. Aiming to highlight the serendipitous beauty of everyday life, his interdisciplinary artworks feature transient spaces and utilitarian fixtures. Bannister captures images through photography, which become the genesis for mixed-media artworks as he incorporates pigment-transfer, painting, collage, and assemblage. Works from his 'Payphones on Film' and 'Luminal / Liminal' series have been exhibited throughout the U.S. Through advocacy and organizing, Bannister is deeply engaged with his local arts community. In January 2025, he worked alongside fellow creatives to found 'Keep Rock Hill Creative' - an initiative aimed at preserving and nurturing the city’s arts and cultural scene. Since 2022, Bannister has worked for Charlotte nonprofit ArtPop, where he furthers the organization's mission of transforming communities through art.

Karen Spears is an interdisciplinary artist and teaching artist whose work explores place and connection through mixed media, photography, video, and alternative photographic processes on paper and textile. Rooted in her foundation as a painter, Karen merges photography with painted pigments, embracing the beauty of imperfection in the handmade. Karen’s practice explores domestic interiors and lived-in spaces, examining the labor of domestic life, the passage of time, and the moments of quiet beauty found in the everyday. Through depictions of household objects, Karen explores the power of narrative and time, transforming the ordinary into artifact and the histories that objects carry. Karen studied at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier, Vermont. After relocating to the Southeastern United States, she developed an affinity for Southern light and landscape. She is currently based in South Carolina.

PERIMETER GALLERY

Catawba River Art Guild Show

EXHIBITION | May 8 - June 13, 2026

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RECEPTION | May 21, 2026 | 5:30 PM​

EXHIBITION STATEMENT

Founded in 2008, the Catawba River Art Guild (CRAG) is dedicated to supporting, encouraging, and inspiring artists while fostering a broader appreciation of the arts within the York County community. With a membership of more than 80 artists, the Guild represents a vibrant and diverse creative network.

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This showcase highlights the breadth of CRAG’s membership featuring an array of artistic approaches including painting, sculpture, mixed media, and photography. The pieces on view reflect a variety of perspectives and practices united by a shared commitment to creative exploration.

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CRAG welcomes artists of all skill levels and media, fostering an environment rooted in collaboration and shared learning. As an affiliate of the Arts Council of York County, the Guild invites you to experience both the individuality of each artwork and the collective energy of a community committed to making art accessible and integral to everyday life. 

 

Join the Catawba River Art Guild for monthly meetings at the Center for the Arts, held every second Wednesday of the month.

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EDMUND D. LEWANDOWSKI CLASSROOM GALLERY

St. John's Afterschool

works curated by Katrin Breitkreutz

EXHIBITION

May 8 - May 23, 2026

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RECEPTION

Thursday, May 21 | 5:30 - 7:30 PM

EXHIBITION STATEMENT

 

Welcome to this showcase of art works by children from age 5 – 11 from St. John’s UMC After School Care program.

 

Katrin Breitkreutz, a local artist, teaches 3 days a week in the After School Care program. “My main goal when working with children is to nurture their joy of creating, their curiosity and love of play that we are all born with.”

 

She chooses projects that will allow them to use their imagination while learning different techniques and utilizing a variety of media. They learn critical thinking skills, problem solving and social skills.

EDMUND D. LEWANDOWSKI CLASSROOM GALLERY

Compass Prep Photography Showcase

works curated by Aaron Aldridge

EXHIBITION

May 25 - June 16, 2026

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RECEPTION

Saturday, May 30 | 4 - 5:30 PM

EXHIBITION STATEMENT

 

Welcome to "Exploring Perspectives," an exhibition that celebrates the culmination of a year-long photographic journey undertaken by our high school photography class. Throughout the year, these young artists have mastered the fundamentals of photography, from understanding the intricate dance of exposure and lighting to capturing compelling compositions that tell a story.

 

This exhibition is more than just a display of technical skill; it is a vibrant exploration of each student's unique perspective. Through their lenses, mundane moments are transformed into extraordinary scenes, and silent stories are given a voice. Each piece in this collection is a testament to the students' growth as photographers and storytellers.

 

As you move through the gallery, you will encounter various themes that have resonated with these young photographers, including nature, urban landscapes, portraits, and abstract interpretations. Each photograph not only reflects the technical skills acquired but also the personal insights and emotions of its creator.

 

"Exploring Perspectives" invites you to view the world through the eyes of our students. We hope that you will find inspiration in their ability to see beauty in unexpected places and to communicate powerful ideas through the visual language of photography. Thank you for joining us in celebrating the artistic achievements of these talented students.

 

 

Compass Prep is a non-profit organization that collaborates with homeschooling parents to support high school students in both their social and intellectual development. We offer a nurturing environment that promotes academic achievement and personal growth. Our curriculum is delivered by independent educators, tailored to prepare students for college.

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CALL FOR PRIVATE VIEWINGS

(803) 328-2787

INQUIRIES

Annie Heisel, Gallery Manager

aheisel@yorkcountyarts.org

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