Entering into its 34th year, the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition recently revealed its featured artists for the February 2016 event in Charleston, South Carolina. Who are they?
Lovers of the finest wildlife art can hardly wait for the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition (SEWE), a series of events in Charleston, South Carolina, that draws more than 40,000 each year from all across the nation. Although it’s several months away, general-admission tickets go on sale October 15, and organizers of the event have announced that Kyle Sims has earned the distinction as Featured Artist as Stefan Savides harnesses the title of Featured Sculptor.
SEWE Executive Director John Powell says, “Kyle and Stefan are headlining one of the finest groups of artists I have seen during my tenure with SEWE.” Speaking of last year’s Featured Artists, he adds, “Having John Banovich and Greg Beecham back in Charleston as guest artists, along with over 100 others from around the country, creates such a powerful exhibit of wildlife art, I believe preview packages and Friday ticket sales will be brisk. It will be an exciting time to be a fan of wildlife art and a great time to be in Charleston.”
Stefan Savides, “Double Shot of Wild Turkey,” bronze, 36 x 44 x 43 in. (c) Stefan Savides 2015
By his early 20s, American realist Kyle Sims was already populating his resume with numerous honors, awards, and distinctions. Among other accolades, Sims has received the Distinguished Young Artist Award from the Society of Animal Artists, Best in Show in the Buffalo Bill Art Show, and the Major General and Mrs. Don D. Pittman Wildlife Award from the Prix De West Art Show and Sale. A few years later he earned the Bob Kuhn Wildlife Award from the Masters of the American West. Sims’s artistic pedigree is impressive; he’s studied under Terry Isaac, Daniel Smith, and Paco Young.
Stefan Savides brings more than 50 years of artistic expertise and experience to SEWE, and he’s proven a magnetic attraction at the event since 2009. The artist is widely known for his expertly observed and modeled birds in bronze, a subject that developed early from his love of aviation and taxidermy. Savides’s range is magnificent, with sculptures depicting birds in elegant flight and motion while others display the stoic forms of perched or nesting fowl.
To learn more, visit Southeastern Wildlife Exposition.
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