Karson Vaughan (he/him) is a Virginia-raised, Charlottesville-based painter. He received a BA in Studio Art with Distinction from the University of Virginia in 2023 with concentrations in Painting and Cinematography. In 2022 he was awarded the UVA Arts Council Distinguished Artist Award for Studio Art and attended an artist residency at Mountain Lake Biological Station, a scientific research station on a secluded mountaintop in Southwest Virginia. In 2024 he completed the Aunspaugh Fifth Year Fellowship during which he participated in an intensive studio practice, advanced seminar, and group exhibition. In 2025 he participated in an internship with Mural Arts Philadelphia where he worked alongside experienced muralists around the city. His identity as a transgender man informs his work as he challenges binary ideologies through the exploration of fungal inspired repeating patterns. He is interested in how painting can facilitate conversations on contradictory perspectives existing within the same space at the same time particularly in relation to queerness and the natural world.

multiplicity of. Acrylic on Canvas. 60"x48". 2023.