Event Featuring Works by Five Artists at Rob Shaw Gallery

Bekah Rice September 28, 2023

On Friday, October 6, from 6 to 9 p.m., Rob Shaw Framing and Gallery will host a reception for a month-long show featuring works by artists Rebecca Horne, Rob Shaw, George Stone, Tianova, and Cody Unkart. The gallery is at 324 State Street in West Columbia.

The show represents an array of styles, from highly representational to eclectic and abstract. At the opening reception, the artists will be on hand to discuss their artwork, which will be available in the gallery for viewing and for sale throughout October.

Since 2018, Horne has focused on mixed media and fluid acrylics, rendering highly textured and multi-dimensional works. In addition to receiving numerous awards in juried shows, Horne was recognized in 2020 by Destig Magazine as one of the top 20 artists of the year. Her work has appeared in a juried Piccolo Spoleto exhibit and in the Vernum Ultimum Gallery international show as well as in other prestigious shows and galleries.

Shaw’s newest works feature large, bright, colorful paintings that represent a bold new direction defined by loose strokes and fresh colors. His art continues to be inspired by iconic South Carolina landscapes and city scenes: “My work has always been impressionistic and, thus, abstract to an extent. Lately I have been pushing the boundaries of the subject matter even further,” says Shaw.

Stone is a representational oil painter focusing primarily on landscapes and still life subjects. Presenting a clear concept, accurate drawing, expressive values and colors, and a well-designed composition, Stone evokes moods in his landscapes by capturing the quality of light present at different times of day, different seasons, and different locations.

Tianova’s preferred media are oil, acrylics, and watercolor. Using negative spaces to transport the viewer through emotions ranging from nostalgia to present-moment awareness, her work captures the intimacy of solitude and silence and the tension between realism and dreamscape.

Unkart’s paintings depict intimate spaces that he visits daily, including views near his home in the New Brookland Mill Village, the Congaree River, and the Vista. Inspired by colors, shapes, and forms that change with the seasons, he enjoys painting from observation, slowing down and being present to the fleeting beauty and liveliness of ordinary surroundings.

Rob Shaw Framing and Gallery is a full-service frame shop and fine art gallery. Since opening his gallery in April of 2019, Shaw has showcased the work of many South Carolina artists. For the remainder of 2023, the gallery will host First Friday at Rob Shaw Gallery receptions every month.

Rob Shaw Gallery Reception to Feature Eclectic Private Collection and Award-Winning Photographer

Cindi Boiter August 27, 2023

On Friday, September 1, from 6 to 9 p.m., Rob Shaw Framing and Gallery will host a reception featuring the private art collection of Mary Beth Dawson-Gillis. The reception will also feature award-winning photographer Skip Willits, who will sign copies of his new book Come Walk with Me. Both Willits’s book and all works in the private collection will be for sale at the event. The gallery is at 324 State Street in West Columbia.

The Dawson-Gillis collection features an eclectic mix of artwork ranging from Folk Gullah paintings to representational landscapes. Featuring more than 20 artists, it includes works by Charles DeSaussure, Kip McCullough, Amiri Farris, Saundra Erickson Wright, Marshall Foster, Michel McNinch and Cami Hutchinson.

Willits is a professional photographer specializing in maritime, nature, and urban scenes, with a special emphasis on lighthouses. His work appears in books and magazines as well as in lighthouse and wildlife posters. Willits has led tours and produced multimedia presentations for the Smithsonian Institution.

Rob Shaw Framing and Gallery is a full-service frame shop and fine art gallery. Since opening the gallery in April of 2019, Shaw has showcased many talented South Carolina artists with diverse styles.

The gallery hosts First Friday at Rob Shaw Gallery receptions every month except July and August.

Phillip Mullen Exhibit of NEW WORK Opens at Rob Shaw Gallery December 2nd

Cindi Boiter November 21, 2022

On Friday, Dec. 2, from 6 to 9 p.m., Rob Shaw Framing and Gallery at 324 State Street in West Columbia will host a reception to launch a month-long exhibit of works by internationally renowned artist Philip Mullen.

Since 1969, when Mullen began his career teaching at the University of South Carolina, his works have appeared in numerous exhibitions at galleries and museums across the US, including the David Findlay Galleries on Madison Avenue in New York City, the Dubbins Gallery in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Malton Gallery in Cincinnati, and the Eva Cohon Gallery in Chicago and Highland Park, IL.

Mullen is known for large acrylic paintings, some as wide as fifteen feet. His 1983 8.5-by-12-foot painting Women in the Country (Series 2, No. 5) is part of the James C. Moore, Jr., Collection of the Work of Philip Mullen, which includes most of the 161 Mullen works owned by the University of South Carolina.

The 2020 recipient of the Elizabeth O’Neil Verner lifetime achievement award, Mullen was named a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of South Carolina in 2000. Since 1990, twenty of his paintings have been on permanent display at the Koger Center in Columbia.

Artist Don Zurlo describes Mullen’s paintings as “very physical, even sensual in the use of color and texture” to draw viewers “into the mystical elements of the works.” By manipulating tactile surfaces and simple forms on a flat plane, he depicts “infinite layers of human experience in a complex interaction between the physical and spiritual worlds.”

The opening reception honoring Mullen on Dec. 2 is part of a series of first-Friday events sponsored by Rob Shaw Framing and Gallery. Since opening his gallery in April of 2019, Shaw has hosted monthly exhibits to highlight South Carolina’s many talented artists.

Renowned Artists Saunders and Jeffcoat Featured in Upcoming Show at Rob Shaw Framing and Gallery

Cindi Boiter September 30, 2022

From our friends at Rob Shaw Gallery

On Friday, October 7, from 6 to 9 p.m., Rob Shaw Framing and Gallery, 324 State Street in West Columbia, will host a reception to launch a month-long exhibit and sale of works by artists Boyd Saunders and Russell Jeffcoat.

The show’s title, La Femme, recognizes this visual celebration of the eternal feminine presence. Artists throughout history have been inspired to depict women, honoring them both as the source of life and as the embodiment of physical grace and beauty.

Saunders’ work spans more than fifty years. Painter, illustrator, printmaker, and distinguished professor emeritus of art at the University of South Carolina, he was born on a farm in Tennessee. Winner of multiple awards, Saunders has exhibited around the world, from Argentina to China. He began the printmaking program at the UofSC and has long been a fixture in the art scene throughout the Southeast.

Jeffcoat, a native of South Carolina, specializes in portraits and fine art photography of the South, rendered with a painstaking attention to detail. His subject matter ranges from classical portraits to luminous figures and reflects his expert understanding of a nearly lost artform: the use of vintage cameras and film.

The celebration of the feminine form can be traced as far back as the 30,000-year-old Venus of Willendorf and includes the marble Statue of a Woman from ancient Greece and the many renditions of the Madonna during the Italian Renaissance. Saunders and Jeffcoat have often returned to this time-honored form of artistic expression that remains prominent in contemporary art.

Rob Shaw Framing and Gallery is a full-service frame shop and fine art gallery. Since opening his gallery in April of 2019, Shaw has hosted monthly exhibits to showcase South Carolina’s many talented artists.

In His First Show Since COVID, Christopher Lane Considers the Necessity of Unity in Dividing Times - by Christina Xan

Cindi Boiter November 4, 2020

“A lot of people feel desperate out there,” Lane says. “And on a humanistic level, I get an idea of why people feel the way they do—they just feel helpless.”

It’s unusual for Modern Surrealist painter Christopher Lane to take such a large break from exhibitions.

Lane is no stranger to sharing the stories he weaves together on his canvases. In fact, 2020 started with a show in Minnesota, followed by acceptances to Art Fields in Lake City and Spoleto in Charleston.

Then, the pandemic hit.

Since the start of COVID-19, the painter has stayed mostly at home, quarantining with his partner, Lisa, and dogs, Loki and Samson. But that doesn’t mean he stopped painting. So, when friend and gallery-owner Rob Shaw asked Lane to do a show in his space, the fragments of United We Stand formed quickly.

The collection is a mix of pieces old and new, and either way, ever relevant. The 52-year-old artist has been painting in response to social and political events for decades, both as a way of working through his own mind and of sharing those inner workings. In recent months, this has only become truer.

“You know, I look around and ask what’s the disconnect,” Lane says. “I don’t understand the disconnect.”

Originally, Lane had titled this most recent collection Divided We Fall as he responded to this increasing disconnect in our country. However, as he continued to paint and watch, which he often does as he watches the news, his mindset shifted.

“I want to emphasize a unity amongst us, regardless of party, ethnicity, race, religion, and gender,” Lane shares, “My work observes the pitfalls of allowing division to thrive and grow amongst a people.”

This body of work builds on top of seeds sewn in his Resist Division exhibition last year, new vines and tendrils wrapping around sensitive and poignant issues.

“It’s election year, we are in the middle of a world pandemic, and we are so busy fighting amongst ourselves that we are no longer paying attention to them,” Lane says, “that small, yet powerful group of people who control our world.”

Lane has always spoken for those small individuals, held an eye in his head and his heart for those details in both people and their surroundings.

“A lot of people feel desperate out there,” Lane says. “And on a humanistic level, I get an idea of why people feel the way they do—they just feel helpless.”

These concerns have pervaded not only Lane’s work but his life, the product of a military household whose father served in three wars and a veteran of the navy himself.

“My greatest desire is that my paintings reflect the one truth, we are all the same. We are all one. And United We Stand.”

Some fights exist within physical places, but this fight traverses boundaries. With this exhibit, Lane desires to speak to all, to promote inclusivity and share humanity regardless of the lines that often separate.

“I like to paint to where someone in another country can look at my work and enjoy it,” Lane says. “You know, they don't need to speak English. They don't need to understand my colloquial behavior to get it.”

“The Grifters”, a featured piece from the show, conveys this desire in a Tower of Babel-esque push and pull of color, conversation, and performance—a struggle we all suffer the repercussions of.

“My greatest desire is that my paintings reflect the one truth, we are all the same. We are all one. And United We Stand,” Lane concludes.

United We Stand opens this Friday, November 6th, and runs until December 1st. The opening reception Friday evening begins at 6pm at the Rob Shaw Gallery in West Columbia. Masks, social distancing, and safety precautions will be in place.

To follow Lane’s work during and after the show, follow his Facebook page, “Christopher Lane Art,” and check out his website for available works and prints: https://www.laneartworks.com/