Austin Sheppard’s exhibition is presented by the Florence Regional Arts Alliance in collaboration with the Florence County Museum, as the third annual ArtFields Solo Exhibition Award.

His life-size figurative sculpture Indigo was exhibited at ArtFields 2017, where it caught the attention of Sandra Cook, Executive Director of FRAA and Stephen Motte, Curator of the Florence County Museum. Sheppard was selected from 20 other prospective artists under consideration by FRAA and FCM to receive the Solo Exhibition Award.

“Installation art has made an appearance in past exhibitions here, but In Absentia is the first exhibit at the Waters Gallery to exclusively feature contemporary sculpture,” said Motte.

Sheppard received his MFA in Sculpture from Eastern Carolina University in 2010, and is a studio technician with the Art Department at UNC Pembroke.

“Austin’s art explores personal and cultural issues of identity, using multiple media and methods to produce works which reside on the line between whimsical humor and the grotesquely bizarre,” Motte describes. “There is a definite theme, but an underlying mystery. Several works make me double-take every time.”

In Absentia will open April 23, 2018 in the FCM Waters Gallery at 135 South Dargan Street. The exhibition will be on display through July 13, 2018.