Special Art Exhibitions
Festival Poster Design Winner

Location
Park Circle Gallery
4820 Jenkins Avenue
North Charleston, SC 29405
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Unbound
Christopher Dotson, winner of the 2023 North Charleston Arts Fest Poster Design Competition, will display his winning piece, Forms in a Landscape, along with a collection of recent paintings in acrylic and oil. Dotson’s canvases are filled with abstract shapes resembling different animals, plants, water, trees, rocks, birds, and fish. These organic forms appear to float in their own space, like hieroglyphs. Raindrops and tears swirl their way through imaginary landscapes that are filled with colorful life. Everything seems unbound from reality, appearing to have been disassembled and reassembled as if chopped up in a blender and poured out onto the painting’s surface. According to Christopher “It is an ecosystem where color and form are arbitrary, spontaneous, and mysterious.” The public is invited to meet the artist at the gallery on Friday, May 5, during a free public reception from 5-7pm.
On view: May 3-27, 2023
Public reception: Friday, May 5, 2023, 5-7pm
Gallery hours: Wed.-Fri, 11am-6pm, Sat. Noon-4pm
Paper Art Exhibition

Location
North Charleston City Hall, 3rd Floor
2500 City Hall Lane
North Charleston, SC 29406
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World of Paper
Growing up in Baghdad, Iraq, Fairoozan Abdullah remembers painting as far back as the age of five. The young artist went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from the College of Fine Arts at the University of Baghdad and teach art in the Iraqi capital for many years. At 30, Fairoozan and her family were forced to leave Iraq, however she continued to paint as a refugee in Georgia, Romania, and Yemen. In 2010, a United Nations refugee program allowed her to come to the US. It was after planting roots in South Carolina that Fairoozan began her paper quilling journey. The dynamic art form of paper quilling involves taking strips of paper and rolling them into different shapes to create detailed designs. The result looks just like a regular painting, with each strip representing a brushstroke. This exhibition features a collection of Fairoozan’s paper quilled “paintings” of portraits, landscapes, and more, as well as her three-dimensional abstract sculptures. The public is invited to meet the artist at City Hall on Thursday, May 4, during a free public reception from 5-7pm.
On view: May 3-June 18, 2023, 8:00am-7:00pm daily
Public reception: Thursday, May 4, 2023, 5-7pm
Public Art Installation

Location
Quartermans Park
Buist Avenue and Spruill Avenue
North Charleston, SC 29405
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Process
South Carolina based artist Brandon Shull creates installations that reference or are influenced by the natural world. His art explores aspects of time, repetition, pattern, and artistic process. Using clay, tree branches, and other natural materials, this temporary public art installation is a manifestation of the artist’s personal journey navigating grief, loss, healing, and transformation. Brandon earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics and Sculpture from the University of South Carolina and has attended workshops at Penland School of Craft.
On view: May 3-31, 2023
Public park open daily, dawn to dusk