Perspectives: Artist Spotlight – Katelyn Chapman & Austin Sheppard

Katelyn Chapman is an oil painter currently based in Charleston, South Carolina. 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, Create! Magazine, and Women United Art Magazine. Chapman holds an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Georgia (’18) and a BFA with an emphasis in Drawing from Clemson University (’14). She 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, she made the transition to full-time artist at the end of 2023, but continues to lead occasional workshops in drawing, painting, and grant writing for artists. Her work is represented by Southside Gallery in Oxford, Mississippi.

Austin Sheppard’s mixed media sculptures and drawings are self-reflective and phenomenological in the sense that he begins from his personal experiences as an individual. But through the vehicle of the human figure, he also explores the shared human condition by expressing emotional experiences like anxiety, anguish, endurance and resilience. Austin earned his BA in Studio Art from University of North Carolina, Pembroke in 2007 and his MFA in Sculpture from East Carolina University in 2010. Previously, he’s been an Artist-in-Residence at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Franconia Sculpture Park, Salem Art Works and has participated in International Sculpture Symposia in the UK, Germany, Finland, Costa Rica and Latvia. Austin is a faculty member at Coker University and lives in Duart, North Carolina. He’s currently working towards developing new work for a major solo exhibition at Wilson Arts in 2026.