Featured Star

The Southeastern Wildlife Exposition names Ryan Kirby the featured artist of the 2023 edition of the event.

Collectors, mark your calendars for February 17 through 19, 2023, when the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition returns to Charleston, South Carolina. This year’s event will celebrate 41 years of SEWE and its role in wildlife art.

The event always picks an artist to represent the show, and this year’s featured artist is North Carolina painter Ryan Kirby. Known for his works of waterfowl, wild turkey, whitetail deer, elk and sporting dogs, the artist has been painting since 1989 when he lived in Illinois. Much of his childhood was spent outdoors, either on a farm or exploring nature. “When I was in high school, you could even take your deer tag into the principal’s office to get an excused absence for the opening day of shotgun season, which always fell on a Friday,” Kirby notes on his website. Ryan Kirby, Mourning Doves, oil, 36 x 24”

Kirby’s big break in the art world came when he won the coveted Junior Duck Stamp Contest in 1999-2000. He was only 16 years old when he won. “This opened my eyes to the possibility of art as a career, and I began to look towards a horizon that was larger than the row crops and livestock that I had always known,” he writes about his early years as a painter. Today his work is collected around the country.

He will join many other artists at SEWE as wildlife, conservation and nature are celebrated. “SEWE monitors trends in the wildlife and sporting art genres as well as those specific to Charleston, and seeks to balance emerging artists with masters and those featured throughout our 41-year history,” says John Powell, SEWE president and CEO. “The anticipation from both artists and collectors is an exciting building block for what we believe will be one of the great shows in the history of the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition.”Ryan Kirby, Pheasants, oil, 36 x 48”SEWE 2023 will take place at five major exhibit sites in 2023: Charleston Place, Brittlebank Park, Gaillard Center, Charleston Marriott and Marion Square. The show plans to bring back its popular attractions, including the Fine Art Gallery, DockDogs competitions, Center for Birds of Prey demonstrations, wildlife presentations, a curated exhibit of artisans and craftsmen, canine demonstrations from herding and retrieving breeds, conservation organizations, the South Carolina Department of Agriculture tent and more.