Southern Voices/Global Visions Opens September 23rd

Southern Voices/Global Visions will be featured in  four locations around Lake City, SC.

South Arts and ArtFields Present Southern Voices/Global Visions

Two of the leading regional arts organizations partner for a city-wide exhibition celebrating 42 contemporary Southern artists.

On view September 23 through December 3, 2023

Lake City, SC – August 14, 2023 – South Arts and ArtFields are proud to present Southern Voices/Global Visions, a city-wide exhibition in Lake City, S.C., featuring the works of 42 contemporary artists from 12 Southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia. 

This groundbreaking exhibition showcases the work of previous recipients of the ArtFields Competition and the South Arts Southern Prize & State Fellowships for Visual Arts, both of which challenge traditional notions of Southern art and explore the complexities of regional identity in a globalized world. On display September 23 through December 3, 2023, the exhibition will span  four venues across Lake City, South Carolina.

Established in 2013 with a mission to celebrate Southern art and revitalize Lake City through the arts, ArtFields’ annual showcase of the competition  transforms the town into a multi-sited gallery, as local businesses display hundreds of artworks and artists compete for $100,000 in prizes. 

As a response to a gap in regional funding opportunities for individual artists in the South, South Arts established the Southern Prize and State Fellowships for Visual Arts in 2017. Created in acknowledgment of the important role artists play in the wellbeing of a region’s culture, the program annually awards $80,000 to nine artists through state fellowships and an opportunity to win the Southern Prize for Visual Arts.

In an inaugural partnership, South Arts and ArtFields are joining forces to celebrate 42 recent winners of these respective programs in an exhibition that activates multiple spaces with art exhibits and programming across the city. Southern Voices/Global Visions features work that embodies the diverse perspectives and experiences that define the Southern region. Collectively, this exhibition will be one of the largest public displays of contemporary Southern art. The curatorial team, consisting of renowned curators Amalia Amaki and Eleanor Heartney, has meticulously selected the artists and artworks that will captivate visitors throughout the exhibition’s course.

“Southern Voices/Global Visions is an invitation for viewers to question the context of a Southern artist and whether regional distinctions are relevant in today’s interconnected society,” said Harriett Green, project manager and exhibition consultant. “We are thrilled to be presenting an exhibition which challenges preconceived notions and showcases the richness, complexity, and global relevance of Southern art.”

“Southern artists are creating groundbreaking, incredible work,” said Susie Surkamer, President and CEO of South Arts. “From cutting-edge media installations to two dimensional work, and following themes including social justice, identity, and equity, we are proud to help share the visions of artists from across our region in this exhibition.”

Southern Voices/Global Visions engages the diverse perspectives of artists who are native to the region, as well as those who have chosen to make it their home. Their works capture the tension between an evolving present and an unresolved past, influenced by urbanization, technology, globalism, and climate change. The exhibition is also organized into four thematic sections, each exploring different aspects of the Southern experience (each detailed below, along with participating artists and venues).

Global Views of Home  | Jones-Carter Gallery

Global Views of Home presents a vision of the South that acknowledges the porous nature of borders and the hybrid quality of contemporary identity. Artists who are Southern by birth join artists who are Southern by choice to reflect on the many ways that one can make a home in the world.

Artists in this section are:

Maggie Evans, Georgia

Raheleh Filsoofi, Tennessee

 Sisavanh Phouthavong Houghton, Tennessee

Maggie Kerrigan, Virginia

Lori Larusso, Louisiana

Sherrill Roland, North Carolina

 Anastasia Samoylova, Florida

 Noah Scalin, Virginia

 Alexi Torres, Georgia

Mythically Speaking: Southern Past | TRAX Visual Art Center Gallery 1

Mythically Speaking: Southern Past exemplifies the truth of Faulkner’s famous remark that “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” This section of the show presents the work of artists who delve into various aspects of Southern history as a way to understand our complicated present.

Artists in this section are:

Jeremiah Ariaz, Louisiana

Tyrone Geter, South Carolina

Karen Ocker, Louisiana

Masud Olufani, Georgia

Marielle Plaisir, Florida

Colin Quashie, South Carolina

 Bill Steber, Tennessee

Sounding Off: Southern Present | TRAX Visual Art Center Gallery 2

Sounding Off: Southern Present brings together artists who explore the social, cultural, and political realities that together have created the contemporary South. They remind us that this is a region that is unique and distinctive but is also an integral part of the world around it.

Artists in this section are:
Becky Alley, Kentucky

Nik Botkin, West Virginia

 Kate Burke, Georgia

 Hannah Chalew, Louisiana

 Antonio Darden, Georgia

 MyLoan Dinh, North Carolina

 Garrett Hansen, Kentucky

 Noelle Mason, Florida

 Kristi Ryba, South Carolina

 Loren Schwerd, Louisiana

 Kirkland Smith, South Carolina

 Marian Zielinski, Georgia

Digging Deeper: Personal Identity | Crossroads Gallery

Identity is often thought of as a mask that we present to the world or a cage that defines how the world perceives us. When perceived this way, the categories of identity – among them race, gender, age and ethnicity – can be very reductive. The artists here suggest other more expansive ways to think about identity. Digging into their personal histories, dreams, traumas and desires, they explore how a sense of self is the product of the interactions between private realities and the demands of the given world.

Artists in this section are:

Stephen Hayes, North Carolina

Ming Ying Hong, Mississippi

Forrest Lawson, Florida

Peter Lenzo, South Carolina

 Fahamu Pecou, Georgia

 Vickie Pierre, Florida

Points of Intersection | The ROB

In Points of Intersection, artists present immersive installations that encourage the audience to engage with other disciplines and fields of study. Moving from STEM to STEAM, some of these installations reveal how art can articulate and reinvent concepts from the vital disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Other areas of intersection are multidisciplinary in nature, showing how visual arts may incorporate elements of literary, performance, dance, media arts and other fields of artists’ interest.

Artists in this section are:

Michaela Pilar Brown, South Carolina

Craig Colorusso, Arkansas

Jenny Fine, Alabama

 Jamey Grimes, Alabama

Amy Gross, Florida

Masud Olufani, Georgia

 Herb Parker, South Carolina

Andrew Scott Ross, Tennessee

Alba Triana, Florida

*States listed by artist names are their states of residence at the time they were awarded either the ArtFields Competition or Southern Prize & State Fellowships.

The exhibition will be also accompanied by an illustrated catalogue, providing in-depth insights into the artworks, artist biographies, and thought-provoking essays by leading art critics and scholars.

During the opening weekend, Florida sound artist Alba Triana will be joined in conversation with guest co-curator Dr. Amalia Amaki for a discussion of her works in the Lake City Library Community Room at 12:00 pm on Saturday, September 23. Following their conversation, there will also be an exhibition walkthrough led by Amaki from 3:00–4:30 pm at the ROB.

In conjunction with the opening programming, there will be a reception on September 23, featuring a performance by Jenny Fine and dance students from the J. Paul Truluck Creative Arts and Science Magnet School at the ROB and concluding with a Southern Dessert Reception in the Courtyard at the Inn at the Crossroads.

For more information about the exhibition, opening weekend, or presenting artists, please visit www.southernvoicesglobalvisions.com.