FSU PANAMA CITY HOSTS OPENING NIGHT FOR ARTIST CHRISTON ANDERSON
Florida State University Panama City will host a reception honoring local artist Christon Anderson from 4:30-7 p.m. on Sept. 19. The event is free and open to the public.
Anderson’s work will be on display in the Allan Bense Atrium of the Holley Academic Center, 4750 Collegiate Drive, from Sept. 16-30.
Anderson’s show at FSU Panama City is part of the Illuminations series of events overseen by Associate Dean Irving Clark, who first met the artist when Anderson was painting a mural for Habitat for Humanity. Clark described Anderson as “a quiet man going about his craft while the world around him focused in.”
Christon Anderson in front of the mural he painted as part of the 'Welcome Wall' in downtown Panama City.
Photograph credit Lou Columbus
“I was captivated for a considerable moment because his art creation looks like it could have lived or grown somewhere.” Clark said. “Christon’s artwork pays tribute to the natural world, which reminds us to slow down and helps us reconnect with nature and people.”
Anderson, who lives in Panama City with his family, is well known along the Gulf Coast for his paintings, which mix abstract and realistic images with collage and found objects. He employs a variety of traditional mediums to produce intuitive works that have a quality of faded memory and vibrant social criticism.
As he worked on his portion of the “Welcome Wall” mural in downtown Panama City in 2021, Anderson described his work as “a conversation with the viewer,” adding the work becomes complete when the viewer interprets it.
In 2017, Anderson was the featured artist for ArtsQuest, the annual fine arts festival in Walton County. In 2019, his piece "Bacon" won the Best in Show award at the Panama City Center for the Arts’ Bay Annual competition. That same year, his photograph "Moving Forward" took top honors at the Center’s F/Stop competition; it depicted his young daughter venturing down the road outside their home through the midst of the Hurricane Michael devastation.
In a 2009 interview, Anderson described his talent as a work in progress: "The object is to get better," he said. "Hopefully, the crowd will follow me and watch me develop. I think, personally, that it's going to be something to see."
When Anderson was a child, he dreamed of showing his art at the most prestigious gallery in the city. Born and raised in Panama City, he attended Mosley High School, where he was known for his athletic ability rather than his artwork. After graduating, he joined the U.S. Army, where he became known as “Chris the Artist,” always being tapped to paint murals or other projects.
"When I got out (of the Army), I thought I had to give it a shot,” he said. “I discovered Basquiat, Warhol — you can do whatever you want. It’s solely your voice. I enjoy playing in that."
Anderson studied drawing with Roland Hockett and learned photography under the late Johnnie Ihlfeld, and over the years his work continued to evolve.
“My whole voice is finding a blend between the hard abstract and realism,” he said in 2016 as he prepped paintings for a show in Grayton Beach. “I’ve got a grown voice now. It’s bolder. I’m just more willing to be daring. … And it’s not just for that sake, it just speaks within the piece. It works for the piece, so I don’t shy away from it as I did when I was a younger artist.”
Realism is “the classroom” and abstract is “recess,” Anderson said in 2020, before his show with Al Feinstein opened at Gulf Coast State College's Amelia Center Gallery. “I enjoy the end-product of realism, but staying in the box is tedious. I capture what I want to capture. I’m not chasing that hyper-perfection like a lot of artists are chasing.”