Longtime Columbia art gallery owner Wim Roefs dies
Wim Roefs, owner of a prominent art gallery in Columbia’s Vista district and a stalwart of the Midlands arts community, has died.
Roefs was the founder and owner of the if ART Gallery at 1223 Lincoln St. in the Vista. Friday messages on the gallery’s Facebook page, as well as Roefs’ personal Facebook page and a Friday newsletter from the gallery, indicated he had died.
“It is with heavy hearts that we must inform you that if ART founder Wim Roefs suffered a heart attack Monday May 9 and died Thursday May 12,” the message said. “We will send out information soon regarding the celebration of this remarkable life. Most Sincerely, Friends of if ART Gallery.”
As noted in a 2017 story in The State, Roefs was originally from the Netherlands. He came to Columbia in 1989 to study journalism at the University of South Carolina, and later immersed himself in the arts and culture scene in the Midlands. He was a board member of Columbia’s 701 Center for Contemporary Art, and was a past chairman of that board.
Roefs opened if ART Gallery in the Vista in 2006 and, as noted by city-backed arts agency One Columbia, the gallery often shows works from artists across South Carolina and the U.S., as well as Europe.
In a 2015 profile in The State, Roefs talked about his drive to highlight artists, especially those from South Carolina, who needed to be noticed.
“If I’m going to go to the trouble of selling art,” Roefs said at the time, “I should at least have the benefit of selling art that I love and respect.”
Tributes were pouring in Friday from Roefs’ friends on his Facebook page. One was from Rodney Welch, a longtime freelance journalist in Columbia who has written countless arts-related stories for weekly newspaper Free Times.
“He knew an enormous amount, was always thoughtful in his opinions and so committed to the artists whose works were on display,” Welch wrote. “By nature he had a cosmopolitan outlook that was rare in Columbia, as was the way he championed free expression and the artistic life. I will truly miss him.”
This story was originally published May 13, 2022 at 12:42 PM.
