Judged Fine Art and Photography Competitions & Exhibitions
2023 Judged Fine Art Competition and Exhibition
Location
Charleston Area Convention Center
Exhibit Hall C
5001 Coliseum Drive
North Charleston, SC 29418
Get Directions ›
Viewing times
Wednesday, May 3, 2023, 6:00-8:00pm
Thursday-Saturday, May 4-6, 2023, 10:00am-6:00pm
Sunday, May 7, 2023, Noon-5:00pm
Opening Celebration & Award Acknowledgements:
Wednesday, May 3, 2023, 6:00-8:00pm
Exhibition Encore:
Sunday, May 7, 2023, 2:00-5:00pm
Overview
Fine artists are invited to participate in the annual North Charleston Arts Fest Judged Fine Art Competition & Exhibition and compete for cash awards in multiple categories totaling up to $6,350. Categories include acrylic, oil, drawing, pastel, watercolor, printmaking, 2-D mixed media, and printed new media. Awards for the 2023 competition will be at the sole discretion of the judge, independent curator and multidisciplinary artist Michaela Pilar Brown. Brown studied sculpture and art history at Howard University, though she has always been a maker of things. Her work can be found in private and public museum collections across the United States. Brown is the 2018 grand prize winner of the Artfields juried art competition and has been selected for numerous artist residencies from Vermont to New Zealand. She serves as a facilitator with Artists U, a grass roots professional development non-profit using open-source materials to share professional development tools and strategic planning with artists, as well as on the board of directors for One Columbia and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, the oldest ongoing feminist granting agency. Formerly the Executive Director of 701 Center for Contemporary Art (2020-2022), she is now the owner/director of Mike Brown Contemporary Art Gallery (formerly known as If ART) in Columbia, SC.
Submit Your Work
Entries for 2023 Competitions and Exhibitions will be accepted from noon-7pm on Monday & Tuesday, May 1 & 2, 2023, at the loading dock of the Charleston Area Convention Center. Check the prospectus for instructions (no pre-jury or application required). Call the North Charleston Cultural Arts Department at 843-740-5854 for more information or to be added to the prospectus email list.
2023 Winners
- Best in Show: Isaiah Rashad THIB (acrylic) by Ann Kathrin Bahr (Summerville)
- Outstanding Merit: Gross Anatomy (oil) by Sarah Keiser (Johns Island)
- Mayor’s Choice Award: Serenity #2 (acrylic) by Alma “Bhing” Canipe (Charleston)
- Best Oil: Butterflies by Robert Maniscalco (North Charleston)
- Best Acrylic: Angel Oak by Kelvin “Nizar” Bluffton (Hollywood)
- Best Drawing: Who Do You Say I Am by Bob Graham (Mount Pleasant)
- Best Pastel: Morning on Snake Hill Road by Susan Hodge (Johns Island)
- Best Watercolor: Larry, Moe & Curly by Sally Fleming (Summerville)
- Best 2-D Mixed Media: Triumph of the Flower by Schenayda Salido (Summerville)
- Best Printmaking: The Dusken Marshes by Elis Hurley (Summerville)
- Best Printed New Media: Stoop Chill by Sean Gallagher (Charleston)
- Best Portrait/Figure: Homeless by Sherry Bevins (Johns Island)
- Best Landscape: Dawn at Cypress Gardens by Catherine Townsend (Summerville)
- Best Still Life/Interior: My Island Paradise by Lu Bentley (Charleston)
- Best Animal/Wildlife: Dalmatian by Jazzy Jordan (Charleston)
- Best Abstract: The Space in Between by Deborah Kinard (Kiawah Island)
Honorable Mentions:
- Jasper (oil) by Jacob Mossbrook (Charleston)
- Hibernian (oil) by Lee Garrard (Charleston)
- Water’s Edge (oil) by Amy Lepping (Summerville)
- And the Rain Kept Falling (Printed New Media) by Kimberly Freeman Bright (Summerville)
- The Fate of Baldr, Son of Odin and Frigg (drawing) by Daniel Jacobs (Charleston)
- Love Heart (drawing) by Willis Sanders (Summerville)
- Amber (pastel) by Peggy Howe (Summerville)
- Anticipation (watercolor) by Melissa Agostini (Mount Pleasant)
- When Doves Cry (2-D mixed media) by Laura Liberatore Szweda (Summerville)
- Beach Sunset (pastel) by Karen Gaag (North Charleston)
2023 Judge’s Statement
I am continually impressed by the level of creative output in South Carolina communities. The diversity of media, subject, and practitioners bodes well for the arts in Charleston, South Carolina, and indeed the Southeast region. The arts continue to be a place for beauty, open dialogue, and individual expression.
-Michaela Pilar Brown, 3 May 2023
2023 Judged Photography Competition and Exhibition
Location
Charleston Area Convention Center,
Exhibit Hall C
5001 Coliseum Drive
North Charleston, SC 29418
Get Directions ›
Viewing times
Wednesday, May 3, 2023, 6:00-8:00pm
Thursday-Saturday, May 4-6, 2023 10:00am-6:00pm
Sunday, May 7, 2023, Noon-5:00pm
Opening Celebration & Award Acknowledgements:
Wednesday, May 3, 2023, 6:00-8:00pm
Exhibition Encore:
Sunday, May 7, 2023, 2:00-5:00pm
Overview
Professional and amateur photographers are invited to participate in the annual North Charleston Arts Fest Judged Photography Competition & Exhibition and compete for cash awards in two categories totaling $1,450. Categories include color and monochrome. Awards for 2023 will be at the sole discretion of the judge, Elizabeth Bick, Assistant Professor of Photography at the College of Charleston. Bick is a photographer influenced by her training in classical and modern dance. She has exhibited at the Norton Museum of Art, the Ogden Museum of Art, Fraenkel Gallery, Houston Center for Photography, and the University of Texas Visual Arts Center. Grants and awards include Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Houston Center for Photography Fellowship, Joan Mitchell Foundation, and The Rudin Prize. She has participated in the summer residency at American Academy in Rome, Ingmar Bergman Estate Artist Residency, La Napoule Foundation residency, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council workspace, and Santa Fe Art Institute residency. Her work has been critically reviewed in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Photograph Magazine, Hyperallergic, and TIME, and she has been commissioned by Public Art Fund, The Atlantic, Harper’s, and NY Times Magazine. She holds an MFA in Photography from Yale University.
Submit Your Work
Entries for 2023 Competitions and Exhibitions will be accepted from noon-7pm on Monday & Tuesday, May 1 & 2, at the loading dock of the Charleston Area Convention Center. Check the prospectus for instructions (no pre-jury or application required). Call the North Charleston Cultural Arts Department at 843-740-5854 for more information or to be added to the prospectus email list.
2023 Winners
Professional Color
- 1st place: Waves of Emotion by Katie Heatley (Charleston)
- 2nd place: No More Tears for Ukraine by Olga Terekhova (Charleston)
- 3rd place: Reaching Out by Pamela Brooks (Mount Pleasant)
Honorable Mentions:
- Dive Buddy by Paul Bryant (Summerville)
- What is Female? by Joanna Biondolillo (Charleston)
- Not Enough Flowers by Marichu Provan (Summerville)
Professional Monochrome
- 1st place: Determined by Brittany Alston (Mount Pleasant)
- 2nd place: Brickell Ave. by Jennifer Hunt (Andrews)
- 3rd place: The Music Played On by Kimberly Freeman Bright (Summerville)
Amateur Color
- 1st place: Patti O Furniture by Dina Platt (North Charleston)
- 2nd place: Harriet Hunt Northern Lights by Nicole Lester (North Charleston)
- 3rd place: The Hiding Place by Brandy Russell (Summerville)
Honorable Mentions:
- Catching the Light by Stacey Green (McClellanville)
- Tess and Zeus by Pete Zwerling (Summerville)
- Luray Caverns by Shawna Cansdale (Henderson, NV)
- Gold!! by Ann Peters (Goose Creek)
- Southern Gothic by Jenny Hough (Mount Pleasant)
- Pretty in Progress by Brandy Russell (Johns Island)
- Evening by the Pier by Tiffany Murphy (Summerville)
- Life Guardians of the Galaxy by Sam Kogan (Charleston)
- Embrace the Breeze by Maleena Kee (North Charleston)
Amateur Monochrome
- 1st place: Life by Chase Porter (Mount Pleasant)
- 2nd place: Womb of Mother Earth by Kira Elizabeth Schlepp (Charleston)
- 3rd place: Standing Alone by Julie Byrd Diana (Summerville)
2023 Judge’s Statement
It was a pleasure to view such diversity of vision in the works on display. There was a much larger amount of outstanding pictures than awards. I was particularly moved by the unique vision of several photographers, as they responded to their own lived experiences, often through the backdrop of this special region of the South. Congratulations to all of the photographers who participated! Keep photographing!
-Elizabeth Bick, 3 May 2023