Literacy and art are paired in this multi-artist show of multi-media works currently on view at Michael’s Café and Catering, 1620 Main Street, Columbia, SC All the art works depict people reading something, usually a book, but also a newspaper, or an Italian dictionary.
Two artists, Meg McLean and Carey Weathers, captured their daughters reading; Claire Farrell caught her granddaughter curled up with a good book.
Bonnie Goldberg applied her characteristic gestural strokes to interpret a woman who always has a book in her hand. The late Reuben Gambrell used watercolors to depict a sailor who scarcely has room to open a book in his cramped quarters aboard a WWII troop carrier.
Barbara Yongue and Rob Shaw positioned their subjects reading in advantageous light. Pete Holland used lights inside the South Carolina State Library and a night setting to dramatize his painting of that institution on Senate Street, flanked by lion statues.
Holland also replaced, through a second work, one of the Little Free Libraries that can be found at various locations around town. The book box that was attached to its post near Tapp’s had been removed; Holland painted it back in.
Two works on loan from Portfolio Gallery in Five Points make possible the inclusion of Junko Ono Rothwell in this show. Portfolio Gallery Owner Judith Roberts allowed a piece from her private collection to join the other People Reading.
The show will remain at Michael’s through late February when the pieces will move to the South Carolina State Library for a new configuration to support spring programming, beginning with Women’s History Month events.
palmetto artifacts 