ETHEL BRODY / ART SALE

If Art (803-238-2351) will administer the sale of some of Ethel Brody's art during the Vista Lights celebration at Vista Studios / Gallery 80808, 808 Lady Street, on November 20, 5-9pm

Please visit these sites to read articles on the life of Ethel Brody.

http://www.701cca.org/2014/10/in-memoriam-ethel-s-brody-1923-2014/

http://www.thestate.com/2014/10/06/3727976/brody-longtime-art-museum-philanthropist.html

if ART Celebrating Five Years

 if ART Gallery

PRESENTS

@

its location at

1223 Lincoln Street, Columbia, SC

&

Gallery 80808/Vista Studios

808 Lady St., Columbia, SC

if ART Gallery 5 YEARS

An exhibition of gallery artists,

introducing:

Michael Brodeur, paintings

Peter Lenzo, ceramic heads

October 28 – November 8, 2011

if ART Gallery FIFTH ANNIVERSARY RECEPTION: 

Friday, October 28, 2011, 5:00 – 9:00 p.m.

Gallery Hours:

Weekdays, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.; Sat., 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.; 

& by appointment

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 238-2351 – wroefs@sc.rr.com

At its location at 1223 Lincoln Street, Columbia, S.C., and at Columbia’s Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, 808 Lady Street, if ART Gallery will celebrate its fifth anniversary with if ART Gallery 5 Years, an exhibition of gallery artists that also will introduce two new additions to the gallery: Greenville, S.C., painter Michael Brodeur and the ceramic sculptures of Columbia artist Peter Lenzo.

The exhibition will run from October 28 – November 8, 2011. The Fifth Anniversary Reception will take place Friday, October 28, 5 – 9 pm, at both the gallery and Gallery 80808. Exhibition hours will be weekdays, 11 pm – 7 pm.; Saturday, 11 am – 5 pm; and Sunday, 1 – 5 pm.

if ART Gallery opened its door on November 6, 2006. Prior to that, gallery owner Wim Roefs organized exhibitions at his home in Columbia’s Old Shandon neighborhood, at Lewis & Clark’s old location on the corner of Lincoln and Lady Streets and at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios. Those early exhibitions included artists such as Leo Twiggs, Jeff Donovan, Carl Blair, Laura Spong, Herb Parker, Mary Gilkerson, Phil Garrett, Mike Williams, Aaron Baldwin, Edward Rice, Anna Redwine, Tonya Gregg, Tom Stanley, Klaus Hartmann and Peter Lenzo. Early break-through exhibition were Aaron Baldwin &  Mike Williams: Up From The Mud in October 2005, Columbia artist Laura Spong’s 80^th birthday exhibition in February 2006 and Leo Twiggs’ Toward Another Retrospective in March, 2006.

“These exhibitions did remarkably well, both in terms of critical acclaim and sales,” Roefs said. “They were a good way to start an art business in that there was not the typical high overhead of a gallery. The disadvantage was that it was hard to do much for artists in between exhibitions. When the gallery’s current location became available in the summer of 2006, I decided to open the gallery.”

After its opening, the gallery, which has some 40 artists on its roster, continued to mount exhibitions at Gallery 80808. There and at its own location, if ART has organized 53 exhibitions, 34 of them solo exhibitions. The gallery has shown the work of more than 80 artists, including more than 35 artists from The Netherlands, Germany, Argentina, Belgium, England, France and Cuba. 

Through such exhibitions as The Fame Factor in September 2007, The Inventory in February 2008, Salon I, II and III in December 2008 – February 2009 and Going Dutch in December 2010, if ART has shown work by many international artists, including world famous artists such as Joan Mitchell, Karel Appel, Corneille, Bram van Velde, Lynn Chadwick and Wifredo Lam. if ART has shown nationally famous artists such as John Hultberg, Ibram Lassaw, Benny Andrews, Richard Hunt and Sam Middleton and represents original Washington Color School painter Paul Reed as well as Philip Morsberger, the former head of the art department at England’s Oxford University. 

The gallery is an active participant in the informal artists’ exchange between Columbia and its German sister city Kaiserlautern, an exchange that is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. Among gallery artists who have traveled to Germany are Mike Williams, Stephen Chesley, Janet Orselli, Dorothy Netherland, Laura Spong, Tonya Gregg, Brown Thornton, David Yaghjian and Jeff Donovan. The latter two currently are in Kaiserslautern for a 10-day symposium and exhibition. if ART represents five artists from Kaiserslautern: Klaus Hartmann, Reiner Mahrlein, Silvia Rudolf, Ralph Gelbert and Roland Albert. It also represents Dutch artists Kees Salentijn and Sjaak Korsten.

“I’d like to think the gallery has raised the bar in Columbia,” Roefs says. “I hope that the quality of the exhibitions in terms of the art presented and they way they were designed have added to the local art scene. Also, it’s unusual to have a gallery here with so many artists from abroad. It’s even more unusual for a gallery in South Carolina to show the work by artists who make the history books about 20^th century art such as Mitchell, Appel, Van Velde, Chadwick and Lam.”

if ART also has published almost 20 exhibition catalogues and almost 50 essays about gallery artists, all but a few written by Roefs. “Those catalogues are especially unique,” Roefs says. “if ART since 2006 by a long shot has published more exhibition catalogues than all other art galleries, art centers and museums in Columbia combined. South Carolina galleries seldom publish catalogues, and museums do so sporadically. I am not always sure that people realize how unusual it is for if ART to have produced these catalogues. But I think they are important. They help educate the public, they create a record of artists’ achievements, they obviously are a great way to promote those artists and they are among the most important resume lines an artist can have. A lot of if ART’s catalogues were modest affairs – small catalogues produced on color copiers – but their very existence is unique within the local context. The catalogues for exhibitions by David Yaghjian, Jeff Donovan, Edward Rice and, twice, Laura Spong, are, I think, of museum quality.”

if ART Gallery Presents.....

@ Gallery 80808/Vista Studios

808 Lady St.

Columbia, S.C.

Deanna Leamon: Heads

&

Dorothy Netherland: D Days

September 24 – October 5, 2010

Opening Reception: Fri., September 24, 5:00 – 9:00 p.m.

Gallery Hours:

Weekdays, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Sundays, 1 – 5 p.m.

& by appointment

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 238-2351 – wroefs@sc.rr.com

Opening on September 24, if ART Gallery presents at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios in Columbia, SC, two simultaneous solo exhibitions by Deanna Leamon and Dorothy Netherland, respectively called Heads and D Days. The exhibition will run through October 5. The artists’ reception is September 24, 2010, 5 – 9 pm.

Deanna Leamon (b. 1957) will present a new body of work made with oil stick on insulation board. In the paintings, Leamon uses the metallic surface of the insulation board as a base color for most of her portraits. Leamon is known for her figurative drawings, most often in charcoal and, therefore, typically rendered in blacks, grays and whites. In this new body of work, however, she uses color, especially blue, red, pink and yellow.

Dorothy Netherland (b. 1962) will present a new body of work using her unique technique of painting, silk screening and transferring ink onto the back of glass. From memory and personal history, Netherland creates narrative, often symbolic tableaus using imagery mainly drawn from 1950s women’s magazines. Most of Netherland’s paintings consist of two or three panes of glass on top of each other, each layer “carrying” part of the image. The approach provides literal and conceptual depth.

Leamon recently moved from Columbia to Massachusetts. Until a few years ago, she taught at the University of South Carolina art department, from which she resigned to work full-time as a studio artist. Her work was in Thresholds: Expressions of Art and Spiritual Life, a 2004 exhibition organized by the South Carolina Arts Commission that traveled the Southeast for three years. She also was represented in The Felt Moment, a 2003 show of art from the Carolinas at the Columbia Museum of Art. Leamon was in 100 Years/100 Artists: Views of the 20^th Century, an overview of 20^th century South Carolina art at the S.C. State Museum.

Netherland, a native of Alexandria, Va., began studying art in her thirties. In 2000 she received a BFA from the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC, where she lives. Netherland’s work was included in the 2004 S.C. Triennial at the S.C. State Museum in Columbia. She also was included in the 2004 Piccolo Spoleto Festival Contemporary Charleston exhibition at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park.

Deanna Leamon, Blue Betsy, 2010, oil stick on insulation board, 32 x 24

Deanna Leamon, Pink Lady #1, 2010, oil stick on insulation board, 24 x 24

Dorothy Netherland, Kitten And Cat, 2010, ink, acrylic, silkscreen and ink transfer on glass, 14 x 11 in.

Dorothy Netherland, Time Bomb, 2010, ink, acrylic, silkscreen and ink transfer on glass, 14 x 11 in.

Jeff Donovan's Show Opens Friday

IF Art,1223 Lincoln St., Columbia, SC 29201, (803) 238-2351

Contact: wroefs@sc.rr.com

Sofa Man, 2010

Acrylic, gouache, charcoal and pastel on canvas

25 x 20 in.

$ 1,200

Opening This Friday

J E F F D O N O V A N

Post-Retrospective Perspective

Since the overwhelming success of his January retrospective, Columbia, S.C., artist Jeff Donovan has been on fire. The ceramicist and painter completed some 15 new paintings that will be shown in an upcoming exhibition at if ART Gallery. The exhibition, Post-Retrospective Perspective, will run from August 13 - September 4, 2010; the opening reception is Friday, August 13, 6 - 9 p.m.

Most of the new paintings feature the psychologically ambiguous figures with a somewhat invented physiology that Donovan is known for. But while the artist's current cast of characters is as subdued as usual, the new paintings are especially lively. Donovan's uses bright colors or high contrasts, continuing the trend that was visible in the most recent paintings included in his January retrospective. His characters have volume and strong graphic qualities, often filling most of the space. The complex surfaces are radiant, carefully built up with gouache, charcoal, pastels and sometimes acrylics. Very few of the paintings have the earth tones or monochromatic qualities that characterized many of Donovan's paintings of the past several years.

The new exhibition testifies to the burst of energy and inspiration that Donovan has gathered from the success of his January retrospective. That exhibition featured almost 100 art works, the majority on loan from collectors, and saw brisk sales.

For a PREVIEW of the exhibition, CLICK HERE.

Oh My, 2010

Acrylic, gouache, charcoal and pastel

on canvas

21x 21 in.

$ 1,325

Hmmm, 2010

Acrylic, gouache, charcoal and pastel on canvas

30 x 30 in.

$ 2,000