“Butterfly Summoner” by Morgan Serreno East
Press Release
The City of North Charleston's Cultural Arts Department is pleased to announce that concurrent solo exhibitions of mixed media works by Morgan Serreno East and photographs by Marie Carladous will be on display at Park Circle Gallery from February 2-26, 2022. A free reception hosted by the artists will be held at the gallery on Friday, February 4th, from 5:00-7:00pm. The public is invited to attend.
Natural Wonder – Mixed Media works by Morgan Serreno East
In Natural Wonder, local artist Morgan Serreno East explores her fascination with the power, uniqueness, and sheer beauty found in nature through a series of mixed media portraits of women. The woman in each painting is purposefully clothed in a light dress, which, at some points, appears to blend in with the environment around her. This creates an airy, seamless world that invites the viewer to become one with it. Each painting is built up with layers of house paint, oil paint, tissue paper, and ink to create an organic texture that represents the constant ebb and flow of nature around us. “While the images in this body of work are not self-portraits in the literal sense, they represent my connection with the Earth and the calmness I feel when I am physically connected with it—whether I am taking a hike in the woods, walking along the beach, or floating in the ocean,” East explains.
Morgan Serreno East earned a BS in Graphic Communications with a minor in Advertising from Clemson University in 2006. For the next 11 years, she focused on her career in printing and publishing. In 2018, she completed an online program through the Visual Arts Passage for Illustration and attended the Illustration Academy in Kansas City, MO, that summer. In January 2019, she took a three-month sabbatical from her role as a Senior Program Manager for Amazon's self-publishing company in Charleston, SC, to focus on building her Illustration portfolio and to travel. During her second round at the Illustration Academy in June 2019, with her teacher's guidance, she decided to focus mainly on Fine Art. Morgan currently resides in North Charleston, SC, and participates in group pop-up events around town including the Park Circle Art Walk, which she began organizing during quarantine in 2020. Her work can be found at The Station and Accent on Wine in Park Circle. Learn more about the artist at morganserrenoeast.com.
An Exploration of Alternative Photography – Photographs by Marie Carladous
Charleston, SC, based photographer Marie Carladous invites the viewer to dig deep into our cultural past through photographs of America and her native France in her exhibit An Exploration of Alternative Photography. The featured photographs embody a small part of the analog world of photography, exploring different techniques such a lumen printing, solarization, and instant photography. Carladous' photography work is very eclectic, ranging from portraiture, to architecture, to abstract imagery. The unifying element in her pieces is experimentation. “A lot of the techniques displayed here were discovered by accident, resulting from a mistake,” she explains. “I explored them without much information being available, going in with both feet not knowing what the results would be, which makes it extremely fun.”
Originally from Nice, France, Marie Carladous moved to Charleston 10 years ago to complete her studio art degree at the College of Charleston with a focus in film photography. After graduating in 2013 she became a freelance photographer, as well as a Darkroom member at Redux Contemporary Art Center, where she processes all film and paper herself. In 2018, she established the French Dark Room and is now a full-time film photographer. Her photographs have been exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the Charleston area, as well as California and Colorado. View the artist's work on Instagram @the_french_darkroom.
The Park Circle Gallery is located at 4820 Jenkins Avenue in North Charleston. Admission is free and free street parking is available on Jenkins Avenue in front of the gallery, as well as on the adjacent streets and in parking lots close by. The gallery is open 10:00am-6:00pm Wednesday-Friday, and Noon-4:00pm on Saturday. Staff and all visitors must wear a face covering while they are in the gallery. Hand sanitizer will be provided upon entry. For more information about PCG, call 843-637-3565 or email culturalarts@northcharleston.org. For information on other Cultural Arts programs and artist opportunities, visit the Arts & Culture section of the City's website at www.northcharleston.org.
