The Arts Center of Kershaw County will feature Christopher Lane and Nikolai Oskolkov in the Bassett Gallery from January 13, 2022 through February 24, 2022. The opening reception for their exhibit, Peacemakers, will be held in the gallery from 5:30-7:00 pm on January 13th, 2022. Meet with the artists and enjoy light refreshments! The Bassett Gallery is sponsored by Van Horn Insurance.

About the artists
Nikolai Oskolkov, known as NikO, lives and works in Columbia, South Carolina. He has been involved in fine art since early childhood and has made painting a career since high school. He has travelled far and wide from Russia to Canada and the US, and throughout Europe and the Caribbean. Defining himself as a “visual musical composer,” NikO constantly expands his own creative vocabulary from the observation of nature and use of imagination. He also believes that regular practice is the only way of hopefully mastering the lyrical instrument of painting. NikO sends everyone a message of simple optimism and good humor with a motley palette of dancing satyrs, figures at rest, lush landscapes and towering clouds! After earning a BFA degree at the University of South Carolina, NikO concentrated on rustic depictions of the rural American South and its colorful folk musicians. In more recent years, NikO has developed into broader, independent subject matter, spontaneously painting everything from mood landscapes, still life, historical portraits, and mythical allegories.

Born in Minnesota in 1968, Lane spent these formative years inspired by regional artists Thomas Hart Benton, Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Roy Lichtenstein. His early teenage years were spent in Cairo, Egypt where his work was influenced by the great architecture, sculpture, symbolism, hieroglyphs and the expressive colors used in their paintings. During this time period Christopher discovered he had dyslexia and furthered his education at the GOW School in South Wales, New York. It was here that Christopher received encouragement and guidance from Fine Arts teacher Bill Parsons. Upon leaving the GOW School, he spent a year living in Paris, France which fueled his creative instincts further. He returned to the States and pursued an art degree at Eastern New Mexico University. Christopher has now 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. They often offer historical, political or spiritual narratives as Christopher is passionate about these subjects. Christopher is a story teller. His work is so intricately detailed that it provides the viewer an opportunity to discover something new each time they view the work. Christopher’s work has been shown in galleries across the United States and as far abroad as New South Wales, Australia. His work was recently featured in the 30th Anniversary group exhibition at the SC State Museum and his body of work can currently be seen in the following three exhibitions: A solo exhibition “Resist Division” at Kyo Gallery in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia; a solo exhibition “Resist and Preserve” at Harbison Theatre at Midlands Tech in Irmo, South Carolina; and a group exhibition at City Gallery for Piccolo Spoleto in Charleston, South Carolina.