ArtFields Winners Collection Exhibition at the Myrtle Beach Art Museum

ArtFields Winner Collection Exhibition at the Myrtle Beach Art Museum: Living, breathing proof of the power of art – that’s what the South’s most engaging art competition/festival,
ArtFields, manifests. Launched in the spring of 2013 with a simple goal of honoring artists in the Southeast, ArtFields’ week-long art competition in the heart of small-town Lake City, SC, has flourished from a tiny seed taking root to ever-expanding, lush and colorful fields of full of pride for what our region’s artists brilliantly create. The Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum of Myrtle Beach is proud to be the first art museum in South Carolina to exhibit the ArtFields Winners Collection from May 31 through September 21, 2025.

Historically, the southeastern United States isn’t typically recognized as an epicenter of fine at, Southern culture is perhaps better known for its cuisine, hospitality, history, literature and craft: pottery, quilting/needlework, woodwork, metalwork, beading, basketry and glasswork. But the distinction between what is considered fine art versus that which is craft is evolving. Craft is traditionally defined as an object created for functional use, whereas fine art is more of a vehicle for self-expression and aesthetic appeal. But the lines between functional and purely aesthetic art are being blurred. Once-considered craft objects are becoming better appreciated as works of art in their own right. And this trend is one that has arguably grown out of the many artists-makers working in the South whose creative and contemporary use of materials traditionally associated with crafts are changing the way we think about these objects – as elevated beyond pure function to that of art. ArtFields has successfully pulled back the veil as expose the4se amazingly diverse and extraordinarily talented makers in the Southeast, as well as underscoring the value of their work, thereby encouraging their efforts and advancing their place in the canon of America art.

Jim Arendt (Conway, SC), the very first Grand Prize winner of ArtFields (2013), uses denim as his medium to create large-scale portraits. Denim, a textile created to be a durable and comfortable material for hardworking people in both rural and industrial industries, is cut and sewn into stunningly realistic layered portrait collages meant to be admired on a wall, like a painting or tapestry. Arendt says his “materials purposely reflect the lives and struggle of the people I come from.”

Michaela Pilar Brown’s (Columbia, SC) installation She’s Almost Ready, which won the 2018 Grand Price, explores the then-current national dialogue around sexual abuse. In general, Brown’s work explores familial histories through an archiving of objects – heirlooms – and the personal mythologies associated with them. She’s Almost Ready consists of a variety of suspended textiles, an open, eerily lighted woodshed, stacked books and crushed glass neatly swept into piles on the floor that faintly suggests a familiar Southern landscape – perhaps a country yard with laundry on the line and a tool shed – but one to be wary of entering.

Victoria Hagner (Sumter, SC), winner of the 2018 People’s Choice Award (3D), pushes the medium of mosaic to the next level with her three-dimensional collared shirt titled Mr. Brooks that is constructed in the round with meticulously placed tesserae.

A 2016 top prize winner, Brent Pafford (Clemson, SC) pays homage to the cast iron skillet, a quintessential Southern kitchen necessity, with the installation Remember, This as a Time of Day. His wall of black and white porcelain skillets is a commentary of contemporary society’s habit of disposing of inherited domestic objects, like frying plans, which were created and purchased with the intention of sustaining its purpose for generations to come.

ArtFields offers over $145,000 in cash prizes each year to participating artists, who must reside in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginial or West Virginia to be eligible to enter the competition. A panel of art professionals select the Grand Prize winer ($50,000); a Second Place winner ($25,000), and an assortment of merit awards. The winners of two People’s Choice Awards – one for 2D and one for 3D – are determined by the votes of ArtFields visitors. The week-long festival exhibits up to 400 works of art displayed all around town in locally-owned venues, from renovated 1920s warehouses and professional art spaces to restaurants and boutiques, essentially turning this mall agricultural community into a living art gallery bustling with excitement and vitality.

Beginning May 31 and through September 21, the Myrtle Beach Art Museum bring ArtFields – well, its past winners – to Myrtle Beach. Visitors will get to experience – or in some cases – re-experience – the Grand Prize, Second Place and People’s Choice winners dating back to the competition’s 2013 debut. Art of all shapes and sizes in both two and three dimensions that pop, surprise and delight, that make a statement, tell a story, make us feel something, and make us wonder will all be on view – all in one place.

We are looking forward to welcoming visitors from all over the country to join us in celebrating the power of art and community with this exciting exhibition of the ArtFields Winners Collection. We can’t wait to share these amazing works of the art and introducing our visitors to the extraordinary happenings going on in Lake City, SC, just 65 miles west of Myrtle Beach and the incredible art they are introducing to a national and sometime international audience.

“ArtFields is living, breathing proof of the power of art. A reminder that its beauty and soul and energy live within each of us – even in the harshest of seasons. We believe art is a field that endures – through flourish and fallow.” ArtFields