2018 JURORS

Chris Evans’ paintings were first introduced in 1984 at the White Columns Gallery in New York, and later included in writer and curator Lucy Lippard’s  controversial exhibition and book, “Vietnam, A Different War” and C. David Thomas’s “As Seen by Both Sides: American and Vietnamese Artists Look at the War.” “As Seen by Both Sides” marked the first cultural exchange between the two countries since the end of the Vietnam war. In 1991, with an increasing interest in community, religion, racial reconciliation and education, Chris Evans joined a co-educational, monastic order in the tenement suburb of Chicago and adopted the name, Chris Smith Evans. In 2009 she moved to South Carolina to teach special education and art. This experience provided opportunities for her to research and develop non-verbal, visual languages to communicate with her students with disabilities. During her graduate studies at Winthrop University Chris has continued to use symbolic language in her artwork.

Foozhan Kashkooli is a gallery director at the Met Contemporary Gallery of Fine Arts and adjunct Professor at the department of Fine Arts at Winthrop University in Rock Hill. She received her B.A. from Queens University of Charlotte with an emphasis in painting and printmaking and her M.F.A. degree in Studio Art from Winthrop University with a focus in painting, drawing and metal sculpture. As an artist, she has worked with many different mediums including Metal Sculpture, Intaglio, Film photography, drawing, and painting. Foozhan’s current work is mainly focused on mixing large scale paintings with metal, wood or installation in an abstract style.