KATELYN CHAPMAN

ARTIST BIO

Katelyn Chapman received an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Georgia in 2018 and a BFA with an emphasis in Drawing from Clemson University in 2014. Her work is inspired by her deeply rooted familial and rural ties to the South, has been exhibited nationally, and featured in international publications like Manifest Gallery’s INDA #12 and Women United Art Magazine. Chapman is a three-time Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grantee (‘19, ‘21, & ‘24) and has been awarded residency fellowships to attend Vermont Studio Center, The Hambidge Center, and Chateau Orquevaux in France. After five years of teaching in higher education as both an Adjunct Professor of Art and later full-time Professor of Art, she made the transition to full-time artist at the end of 2023. She exhibits her work regularly at Southside Gallery in Oxford, MS, and currently lives and works in Charleston, SC where she paints from her home studio and leads drawing and painting workshops at Redux Contemporary Art Center.


ARTIST STATEMENT

My work explores episodes of working-class life in America’s rural South through the lens of my own family and friends in the Midlands of South Carolina. Relying on rich history, storytelling, and the ephemeral quality of change that span past, present, and future tenses; I primarily focus on the function of the still life in rural spaces—both wild and domestic—as practical makeshifts and collections. I use repetition throughout my work to highlight habits that are formed and passed down over time through the frugal nature of survival. With themes that revolve around living off the land, I paint these accounts to celebrate, honor, and show reverence towards the customs and traditions of the rural working-class South. Through this, I also give an authentic voice to a demographic that is often misunderstood, misrepresented, or completely discounted by its outsiders.