SHIPS OF THE SEA MARITIME MUSEUM
LOCATED IN THE HISTORIC WILLIAM SCARBROUGH HOUSE AND GARDENS
THE GHOST VOYAGE MAP
Click on each artist to read their bio
3. Will Penny
4. Matt Van Rys
6. Abby Portner
7. Greg Finger
8. Matt Toole
9. Kevin Kirkwood & Patrick Kuhnmuench
10. Todd Schoeder
Artist Biographies
MARCUS KENNEY
Savannah-based artist Marcus Kenney creates vivid, symbolic works that fuse Americana, surrealism, and storytelling. Working across collage, sculpture, and neon installation, he transforms familiar imagery into glowing meditations on culture and identity. His art has been exhibited around the world and featured in Art in America, The New York Times, and Oxford American.
A Chain of Events
Neon Installation by Marcus Kenney for The Ghost Voyage
JOSHUA ALEXANDER
Joshua Alexander is a Savannah-based artist whose practice blends sound, technology, and mixed media to explore the nature of energy and perception. With roots in physics and a deep interest in the immaterial, he creates installations and paintings that transform abstract forces into sensory experience. His work examines how sound, motion, and memory shape our understanding of the world, inviting viewers into contemplative, multisensory environments
Ghost Voyage
Installation by Joshua Alexander for The Ghost Voyage
WILL PENNY
Will Penny is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the intersection of painting, sculpture, digital media, and technology. Based in Savannah, he creates immersive installations and projections that investigate perception, presence, and the shifting boundary between the physical and virtual. His work has been exhibited at the Telfair Museums, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, HUBweek in Boston, and Francis Marion University, among others.
We are Holding Our Own
Light Projection by Will Penny for The Ghost Voyage
MATT VAN RYS
Matt Van Rys is a motion designer, educator, and creative director based in Savannah. A professor of Motion Media Design at SCAD and co-founder of Pläd, Van Rys works across projection mapping, experiential installation, and spatial media. With over twenty years of experience in design and motion graphics, his practice explores the relationship between moving image, architecture, and viewer experience.
Spirit Mist
Installation by Matt Van Rys for The Ghost Voyage
KRISTOPHER MAEDKE-RUSSELL
Kristopher Maedke-Russell is a Savannah-based artist and marine scientist whose work blends analog projection techniques with an understanding of oceanic systems. Using vintage equipment, liquids, and hand-crafted methods, he creates swirling, light-based environments that echo the movement and rhythms of the sea. His practice bridges scientific insight and artistic experimentation, resulting in immersive visuals that feel both organic and otherworldly.
Additives #1
Water, Oil, Ink, Glycerine, Air & Light Installation by Kristopher Maedke-Russell for The Ghost Voyage
ABBY PORTNER
Abby Portner is a production designer, illustrator, and filmmaker known for her vibrant, imaginative installations and stage environments. With a background in set design and music collaboration, she has created work for artists including Animal Collective, Lucius, and Andrew Bird. Her practice spans large-scale sculpture, stop-motion animation, and immersive, playful environments that blur the line between performance, illustration, and installation.
Lost City Lights, where Merfolk Play
Installation by Abby Portner for The Ghost Voyage
"Reimagining the depths of the sea through projections and sculptures. Inspired by merfolk, ancient sea legends, and the lost city of Atlantis, this work transforms the museum's outdoor garden into a vibrant, subaquatic realm. brought to life through stop-motion projections and glittering sculptures to further enhance the illusion, immersing you in a trippy underwater world."
GREG FINGER
Greg Finger is a digital artist whose practice merges interactive technology, sound, and video to create responsive, atmospheric installations. Working with motion tracking, projection, and generative systems, Finger designs environments that react to the presence and movement of the viewer. His work explores the space between the physical and the virtual, transforming simple gestures into luminous visual experiences.
The Lighthouse
Interactive Light Installation by Greg Finger for The Ghost Voyage
MATT TOOLE
Matt Toole is a sculptor and metalworker from Savannah whose practice centers on cast iron, performance, and large-scale public works. With an MFA from Southern Illinois University and residencies across the U.S. and Europe, Toole has spent decades exploring the sculptural and performative possibilities of fire and molten metal. His work draws on both traditional foundry processes and contemporary environmental influence.
Final Passage
Fire & Metal Installation by Matt Toole for The Ghost Voyage
"Lanterns dimly illuminate a narrow passageway leading down to a collective pool of souls"
KEVIN KIRKWOOD
Kevin Kirkwood is a contemporary artist and educator whose work travels between painting and immersive installation. He builds layered objects and environments that strive to be both visually detailed and emotionally engaging.
His work has been featured at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) in 2017, curated by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and in the Gathered biennials at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA) in 2021 and 2023.
Kirkwood also produces The Strand, a podcast that delves into the creative process, exploring how and why ideas, materials, and meaning come together.
PATRICK KUHNMUENCH
Patrick Kuhnmuench is a motion designer passionate about illustration, storytelling, and crafting immersive visual experiences. Blending artistry with technology, he creates dynamic animations and projection art that bring ideas to life. From screens to physical spaces, he designs motion-driven experiences that captivate audiences and make stories impactful.
Surface Tension
Foam, Nylon, Metal & Light Installation by Kevin Kirkwood & Patrick Kuhnmuench for
The Ghost Voyage
Video duration: 107 seconds
"A vision suspended between calm and collapse. The ghost ship emerges not as vessel, but as feeling—fear adrift in endless silence. Layers of mist and motion blur into one trembling moment before disappearance. This body of work captures that fragile threshold: when presence becomes absence, and the weight of unseen peril presses against the surface, waiting
to break through."
TODD SCHROEDER
Todd Schroeder (b.1968, Defiance, OH) is an artist and educator based in Savannah GA. He has a varied studio practice that works through the lens of painting. Schroeder's work has been exhibited internationally, including solo shows at White Columns in New York, the Jepson Center - Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, William Busta Gallery in Cleveland, Savannah College of Art and Design, Kent State University, Gallery Stokes in Atlanta, Laney Contemporary in Savannah, and Atelier William Ruller in Apt, France.
He also engaged in a two-person collaboration with Gonzalo Hernandez called SIH at THE END in Atlanta. His work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including shows at Bridget Donahue Gallery, Exit Art, AC Project Room, and 407 Gallery, all in New York City; Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia; Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland; Cleveland State University; Oberlin College’s Here Here Gallery; Moot gallery in Hong Kong; as well as several venues in Serbia and Montenegro, including the Contemporary Art Center Montenegro in Podgorica, the National Gallery of Serbia in Belgrade, and the Contemporary Art Museum of Vojvodina in Novi Sad.
Reviews of Schroeder’s work have appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Time Out/New York, ArtPulse Magazine, and The Cleveland Plain Dealer, among others.
SHEA BENEZRA
Shea Benezra is a sound designer and musician from Brooklyn, New York, currently
residing in Savannah. His work in film has appeared in major International film festivals
notably including Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of A24 film Funny Pages (2022) and Sundance Film Festival for Palm Trees and Powerlines (2022).
Prior to focusing on sound full-time, Benezra worked as a studio assistant to MacArthur Fellow Josiah McElheny in New York. In addition to his work in film and art, Benezra is a drummer and songwriter in the Savannah-based band Basically Nancy.
Heart of Darkness
Installation by Todd Schroeder & Sound by Shea Benezra for The Ghost Voyage
"It’s my attempt at narrative or my facilitating narrative to develop from a prompt and a place and a time - a narrative of swashbuckling, ship maintenance, gestural painting, theft, crime scenes, reclaiming, repurposing, appropriation, and expansion - a multi pronged narrative that speaks to history of modern and modernist painting and the romance of the undermining of capitalist structures on the high seas"
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