Artist Nick DeFord's work will be featured in his solo exhibition "Old Haunts," which opens Monday, Jan. 18, and runs through Thursday, Feb. 18, in the Rebecca Randall Bryan Art Gallery at Coastal Carolina University. A reception with the artist will take place on Thursday, Feb. 18 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

DeFord's work explores the visual culture of cartography, occult imagery, geographical souvenirs, and other structures of information that is altered to examine the relationship of identity, space and place. The disruption of these visual systems reveals a thin boundary between the known and unknown.

"I select for subject matter places and themes that are infamous for their mystery," says DeFord. "These mysterious themes may be the habitation of monsters, centers of conspiracy, occult devices or vortices of mysticism."

DeFord graduated from Arizona State University with a Master of Fine Arts in studio art and is currently program director for Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tenn. He has previously taught at the University of Tennessee and has taught embroidery workshops at Arrowmont, Penland School of Crafts and Bloomsburg University. DeFord exhibits nationally, with exhibitions at the University of Mississippi, The Knoxville Museum of Art, Vanderbilt University, Lindenwood University and the William King Museum in Virginia.

The gallery is located in Room 129 of the Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts at 133 Chanticleer Drive W., Conway.

The gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call James Arendt, gallery director, at 843-349-6409 or visit the gallery's website www.coastal.edu/bryanartgallery.