A prominent art gallery in Columbia’s Vista has a new owner months after founder’s death
A prominent art gallery in Columbia’s Vista district has a new owner.
Michaela Pilar Brown, a longtime Columbia artist, is the new owner of if ART Gallery at 1223 Lincoln St. in the Vista. The sale comes following the sudden death of Wim Roefs, if ART’s founder and previous owner, in May.
“I’m excited to be stepping into a new adventure – offering contemporary art from new and established voices to a city that I love and that deserves it,” Brown said in a news release. She will take over the gallery on Sept. 1.
Roefs opened if ART Gallery in the Vista in 2006 and, as noted by city-backed arts agency One Columbia, the gallery has often shown works from artists across South Carolina and the U.S. A native of the Netherlands, Roefs came to Columbia in 1989 to study journalism at the University of South Carolina. He died on May 12 after suffering a heart attack a few days prior.
In a release, Woefs’ wife, Eileen Waddell, called Brown the “perfect person” to take over the gallery.
“The gallery is a cultural touchstone for the state that draws clients from miles around,” Waddell said. “Michaela knows the art world and the gallery’s artists. She knew what the gallery meant to Wim and to the city and the state. She’ll take it and make it her own. And we’re all very much looking forward to that.”
Brown is no stranger to the arts scene in Columbia and across South Carolina. As noted by One Columbia, she studied sculpture and art history at Howard University, and her own art “explores issues of identity and notions of otherness as defined in American standards of beauty using a combination of installation, performance and staged photography, and is interested in the politics of the body with respect to race and gender.”
In 2018, Brown won a $50,000 grand prize at the prestigious ArtFields competition in Lake City, and she is the executive director of the 701 Center for Contemporary Art.
