Sumner’s work draws from the discarded materials of urban life—shopping bags, street posters, and fragments of advertising ephemera—transforming them into layered visual narratives that reflect the cultural residue of consumerism. Each collage becomes a study of the symbols and hierarchies that shape modern identity, exploring how branding, commerce, and aspiration intersect within everyday experience. Through tearing, painting, sanding, and reconstruction, Sumner reconfigures these remnants into textured compositions that question what we value and why.
In the Maison series, Sumner repurposes luxury brand packaging to examine the allure and influence of corporate imagery. Referencing both contemporary consumer culture and historical displays of wealth, these works investigate how objects and logos serve as modern emblems of status and self-mythology. This inquiry continues Sumner’s long-standing engagement with social commentary, following earlier bodies of work that integrated text, poetry, and political verse within distressed urban surfaces.
