In 2000, Barbara Unverferth established Art Access Gallery to display and share the work of committed artists. Now, 25 years later, Unverferth’s artistic judgment continues to bring loyal customers into the space to support local creators.
“The gallery has been just steadily moving forward,” Unverferth says. “Some of my artists have been with me since I started.”
Michael McEwan
McEwan Landscape - "West Campus"
Realist painter Michael McEwan, for example, has worked with Unverferth since before the gallery was established. The former Columbus College of Art and Design professor says his work is strongly motivated by color and light.
“I’ve studied it for years,” McEwan says. “I want to have a sense of light coming from the painting, so that people see it and feel … the sun or the space, the atmosphere.”
Michael McEwan
McEwan Abstract - "Field Study"
During his 40-year career as a Columbus-based artist, much of McEwan’s artistic process has been reminiscent of traditional practices and techniques. He’ll begin with a sketch, sometimes drawing from real landscapes, before working with his oil paints, he says.
“On occasion, I will grind my own color to get a certain tone,” McEwan says. “People think I’m crazy, but I probably spend as much time setting up the palette as I do (making) the painting.”
McEwan also uses a special kind of linseed oil in his paints.
“It doesn’t yellow, and it dries faster than regular linseed oil,” he says. “That, when mixed with marble dust and beeswax, gets thicker paints that aren’t going to crack.”
As Columbus buyers become increasingly interested in more abstract aesthetics, McEwan says he’s shifting his work to serve new markets. He switched his focus from smaller, more classic landscapes to larger-scale pieces.
“The latest work that I’m doing is actually going all in on abstraction,” McEwan says. “It’ll probably freak everybody out, but I don’t care, I’m almost 70 years old.”
Over the years, Unverferth has also shifted Art Access Gallery toward abstraction, hosting a greater variety of artists with diverse, unique mediums.
One such artist is Amanda Love, a former bookbinder and letterpress printer. Love’s medium involves disassembling and reconstructing old books to form sculptures, installations or other flat-lying pieces.
Occasionally incorporating inks and other elements, each of Love’s time-intensive pieces tells a unique story rooted either in history or today’s society.
“When I started specifically making book work, the beginning of book suppression was starting to rise,” Love says. “A lot of the work has come from that.”
Amanda Love
Love - "Word Matter"
Love’s work intentionally starts conversations around book suppression – institutions banning certain books from libraries – as well as conservation, environmentalism and other movements that engage her.
Love says her textural artwork is minimal yet powerful, and centered around her appreciation for books.
“It’s more (about having) a deep love of the book and a reverence for the book … so that I can make something with those pieces with respect,” Love says. “There’s also something that’s really captivating to me, to make something that is beautiful that is also showing the opposite beauty, this terrible destruction and loss.”
Whether realist or conceptual, Unverferth says her only criterion for carrying an artist’s work in the gallery is that she loves it herself.
“I love to expand somebody’s knowledge and make them feel like they’re getting something that’s maybe a little bit outside their comfort zone,” Unverferth says. “I just love it. That’s the best.”
Frances Denman is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
