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March Issue 2003
The Waterfront Gallery in Charleston, SC, Features Works by Karen Vournakis
The Waterfront Gallery in Charleston, SC, is pleased to feature new works by Karen Vournakis for the month of Mar., 2003. This body of work, entitled Beach-Scapes, represents the artist's continued exploration of beach environments utilizing mixed media and photographic art techniques. Designs and patterns created by water and wind in the sand along the water's edge, and the shoreline where land meets sea and sky, provides the subject matter. The artist through her use of light and color has created a unique and powerful new vision of the beach scape.
Vournakis works in the 19th Century tradition of hand-painted photography, taken to a new "Post- Modernist" level of subtlety in form and color. "I studied printmaking and painting prior to becoming interested in photography. My art is a blend of all three media. I've developed a unique technique of layering oil, aquamarine crayons and pencils applied directly onto black/white photographs printed on fiber-based paper. The photograph is the basic structure on which I build a complex image. My multimedia approach transforms the black/white print into full color. The color in-put is used to provide spatial elements within the image. The result is a unique blend of painting and photography."
Vournakis received her MFA from Syracuse University's College of Visual & Performing Arts and taught photography at Syracuse University, Colgate University and Dartmouth College. Her images hang in the permanent collections in such venues as Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris), Everson Museum of Art (Syracuse, NY), Charleston Place Hotel (Charleston), Roper Hospital (Charleston), Woodstock Inn & Resort, (Woodstock, VT), Kidder, Peabody & Co. (New York City), Fidelity Management & Research (Boston & London) and the Greek Embassy (Washington, DC).
Recently, Vournakis joined the Agora Gallery in Soho, NY. and exhibited work there in Oct., 2002 from her Charleston Façade series; imagery of Charleston's classically based architecture. Throughout her career she has won awards and grants, including the CAPS Fellowship (NYC), the Ford Foundation Grant (Syracuse University), and awards during the last three years at the Piccolo Spoleto Outdoor Art Exhibition (Charleston, SC). Vournakis has had numerous solo exhibitions in the US and has participated in many group shows. You can explore her work at her web-site (www.karenvournakis.com).
Vournakis has been a member of the Waterfront Gallery, one of the premier artist-owned galleries in the historic district of Charleston, since 1997. The Waterfront Gallery features original works of art in oil, watercolor, pastel, mixed media, photography, monotype prints and lithographic prints from eighteen Charleston-based artists.
For more info check our SC Commercial Gallery listings, call 843/722-1155, or on the web at (www.waterfrontartgallery.com).
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