Southeastern Wildlife Exposition
Charleston, SC
Elements of sporting life and some of the best in wildlife art come together for the annual Southeastern Wildlife Exposition in Charleston, South Carolina. Throughout the three-day event visitors can partake in a range of activities both sporting and art-related, like the Dockdogs Competition where dogs of all kinds and skill levels compete in various water jumping competitions, and the sheep and duck herding demo, as well as art previews, quick draws, speed sculpts and more.
An exciting new element to the event this year is A Big Night for Small Works happening on Wednesday, February 12. The ticketed event is a juried show featuring 50 small works from SEWE artists. The featured artists for the miniatures show, Wes and Rachelle Siegrist, will do live demonstrations and paintings, and guests will be able to enjoy live music and drinks.
“That’s going to be a really incredible event in and of itself. We’re going to have an
illusionist and a lot of other fun elements as well,” says SEWE curator Natalie Henderson.
In addition to the small works show, artrelated happenings throughout the weekend include the Quick Draw/speed Sculpt on Friday, February 14, in the Fine Art Gallery at Charleston Place, and Copley Fine Art’s Winter Sale on February 15 running from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Charleston Marriott Hotel.
“What has become kind of a crowd favorite for collectors is our preview afternoon on Thursday, February 13, from 1 to 5 p.m., and that’s the first access to all the art,” says Henderson. The preview shows off 2,500 to 3,000 original works of art, encompassing paintings, sculptures, carvings and more. “Having first access to that is always a coveted afternoon,” she says.
Henderson names just a few of the many artists in attendance at the 2020 show. “We’re always very thrilled to have Walter Matia, Sandy Scott and Stefan Savides,” she says, adding that there will be around 15 new artists in attendance this year including Mitch Baird, Mark Mckenna, Ann Goble, Daniel Porter and Eleanor Parker.
Among the total 100 wildlife artists exhibiting their work this February are John Banovich, Vivian Boswell, Stephen Townley Bassett, Jennifer Black, Grant Hacking, Patricia
A. Griffin, Joseph Sulkowski and last year’s featured artist Lou Pasqua.
The featured artist for 2020 is plein air painter Jason Tako, who takes a unique approach to his artwork, painting animals from life. “I was stunned for a while and couldn’t really do anything for several hours until it sunk in,” says Tako on being selected as this year’s featured artist. The official 2020 SEWE poster is his oil, The Road Less Traveled, depicting two horned rams on a mountain top.
“Jason is from Pennsylvania, and he’s very well known for his Western landscapes as well as his Native American art. So he just has a fresh perspective on his subject matter,” says Henderson. She explains that Tako has been with SEWE for several years now, steadily building up a significant collector base. “He’s really established himself at our show, so we’re delighted to make him the featured artist for our show. He really intimately studies his subject matter.”
SEWE exhibits throughout Charleston close on Sunday at 5 in the evening.