June 2013

The Community Museum Society in Lake City, SC, Offers First Exhibit

The Community Museum Society in Lake City, SC, will present agriART, featuring works by Joshua Vaughan, Mark Conrardy, and an installation by Vassiliki Falkehag, on view in the Jones-Carter Gallery, from June 21 - Aug. 26, 2013. A reception will be held on June 21, from 5-7pm.

The exhibition is an array of visual art that critically engages with cultures and traditions of Southern agricultural communities. The exhibition features projects that represent where these communities came from and the realities of where they are today in the agricultural industry. agriART was curated by Hannah L. Davis, Gallery Manager and Historic Preservation Coordinator of the Community Museum Society, Inc.

Joshua Vaughan is from Greenville, NC. “I come from a blue collar background in a rural county in North Carolina. While growing up, I worked as a farm hand from about the age of 10 to shortly before leaving for college at 17,” said Vaughan. “I am currently a Graphic Designer + Photographer for East Carolina University in Greenville. I have an AAS from Pitt Community College in Advertising and Graphic Design as well as a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from East Carolina University. In my position within East Carolina University’s department of Marketing And Communications Academic and Student Affairs, my responsibilities include working with the University Standards while generating a new approach with various departments and their projects. These projects range from single-use LCD designs to full multi-piece marketing campaigns.”

Vaughan adds, “In my spare time, I freelance helping out with local business and community events.”

Mark Conrardy is from Columbia, SC. Originally from Kansas, he attended Kansas State University where he graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Architectural Engineering. At the same time Conrardy also started to take fine art drawing classes. Upon completing college, he moved to California where he worked for Ware Malcomb Arichitects. Conrardy’s first job at that firm was working on presentation drawings for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. While working in architecture, he completed many parts of the California State Architectural Licensing Exam including Architectural Design.

Conrardy moved back to Kansas City in 1987 and worked for Transworld World Airlines for the Passenger Accommodations Engineering Section as a computer draftsman. He then went back to school where he got his Commercial Art degree at Johnson County Community College in 1991, where he continued taking drawing and painting classes in the fine art section of the college.

In 1993, Conrardy worked as a computer production artist for Gill Studios, a silkscreening company, in Lenexa, KS. In 1994, he worked for the Lawrence Journal-World newspaper as an graphic artist/illustrator in the advertising department.

In 1996, Conrardy moved to South Carolina where he worked for the South Carolina Department of Health & Environmental Control (SCDHEC) as a graphic artist/illustrator. In 2001, he switched state agencies and now works for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) in the same capacity.

Artists Mark Conrardy and Joshua Vaughan were recently competing artists at Lake City’s epic Southern ArtFest, ArtFields in April 2013.

Vassiliki Falkehag was born 1945 in Greece, but now lives in Mt. Pleasant, SC and in Orebro, Sweden. She is an installation artist who has been featured in shows internationally including Orebro, Sweden’s Open Art. She uses natural materials in all of her installations. Coinciding with agriART, she has a new show opening in Sweden with an installation made out of mushrooms.

Falkehag is doing an installation using live and dried tobacco plants. Based on a previous tobacco installation the artist will most likely be doing a provocative piece that engages viewers to think about how the tobacco industry started and where it is today - the heyday to the demise in the South.

For further information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call 843/374-1500 or e-mail to (hdavis@cmslc.org).

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