Join us at a Round Table Discussion featuring four of the Biennial Part I artists, Keith Tolen (Columbia), Colleen Cannon-Karlos (Columbia), Kevin Kao (Greenville), and Kate Hooray Osmond (Charleston). Kao will serve as moderating artist. This is the center’s eighth survey exhibition of work by contemporary South Carolina artists. Judges were Sade Ayorinde of Columbia, SC, Floyd Hall of College Park, GA and Deirdre Visser of San Francisco, CA. Selected artists are all current residents of South Carolina and represent a variety of media. Twelve artists are represented in each exhibition. Biennial Part I is on display from August 21 – October 5 and includes the work of Dylan Bannister, Jenny Bonner, Colleen Cannon-Karlos, Michael Cassidy, Brooks Harris Stevens, Kevin Kao, Morgan Kinne, Flavia Lovatelli, Kate Hooray Osmond, Drew Sisk, Keith Tolen, and Nathalie Watson.

More on the Discussion Participants:

Kevin Kao (Greenville)
My work is constructed through a lens of cultural hybridity: drawing from familial narratives, body, and multiplicity as avenues to examine assimilation. I’m fascinated by the interplay between individual and group, and create sculptural collections that trace and expand on notions of belonging, loss of individuality, and power of group dynamics. As an Asian-American artist, my work often references forms and silhouettes from ancient art histories as a way to re-present “ideal” through double entendre and humor. I try to find the funny in formal: creating suggestions of an Other through flesh, fruit, hair, and sex.

Much of my figurative work incorporates conception of the self-image. I’m interested in the constructs of identity through unlimited possibilities associated with the material properties of clay. I contour, fold, flop, and bend clay to mimic flesh: often as suggestions of combined biomorphic hybrids, a stand-in for selves. Gaze and desire are elicited through the combination of seductive form and finish.

In the larger context of my work, I’m interested in the perception of value and its relationship to history, craft, and authorship. I continually question these ideas through a uniquely sculptural perspective: examining how the material has been handled historically, and how I can use it to address body, taste, and objectification.

Kate Hooray Osmond (Charleston)
I experience a world where definitions and foundations are increasingly dissolute. A world of complete energy: change, abundance, sorrow, creation and destruction. I am embracing everything in order to see the complete balance of existence and to learn peace in a climate when nothing lasts.

Colleen Cannon-Karlos (Columbia)
My new work consists of deconstructing recycled corrugated cardboard and transforming it into an alternative surface to create new imagery. Mixed media application includes cardboard, recycled plastic shopping bags and other packaging materials. The corrugated or fluted ridges contain their own design aspect of regularly spaced, machine engineered parallel lines. Removing and/or adding layers by distressing and manipulating the cardboard reveals amazing textural characteristics that are enhanced

with the application of other materials. Building and molding the cardboard creates a 3D manifestation. Following my deconstructing and layering processes I begin to paint the composition, using the paint to further enhance the original design and multiple textural elements that have been rendered. The resulting imagery has a tangibility evocative of intaglio, relief and other texture laden printmaking methods combined with the 3D quality of carved wood or etched metal. The artwork is mounted on wooden panels for professional display. I am particularly fascinated by the corrugated ridges that can be manipulated in various ways. It is reminiscent of indigenous African, Native American, Asian and Polynesian art forms that often contain repetitive lines and geometric shapes. Artistic influences include

Architect Frank Gehry and cardboard artist Ann Weber.

Keith Tolen (Columbia)
As an artist and educator rooted in the rich soil of Batesburg, South Carolina, my work has always been about connection—between people, history, and spirit. My collection Conversation with A Dot began as a minimalist meditation but quickly became something much more: a visual language born from the quiet presence of a single mark. The “dot” in these works represents the origin of communication, the beginning of movement, and the seed of understanding. It speaks, listens, and challenges.

Each piece in the Conversation with A Dot series explores how something so small and still can evoke rhythm, conflict, dialogue, and transformation. Layer by layer, I use color, space, and gesture to respond to the dot’s silence with narrative, improvisation, and at times, resistance. These works are deeply influenced by my experiences as a Black Southern man, an educator, and a witness to both the struggles and the resilience of my community.

My broader body of work reflects similar themes—identity, heritage, and the power of mark-making as testimony. Whether through mixed media, paint, or sculpture, I explore the intersection of personal memory and collective history. Teaching art for many years across the Carolinas has also shaped my creative practice. It has taught me that every voice matters, even the quietest one. Sometimes, that voice starts with a dot.

Ultimately, my art is an invitation to slow down and listen. To see how something small can grow into something meaningful. To engage in a dialogue—not just with the work, but with ourselves, and with the world we share. It is reflected in these brief lines.