From social media to art exhibit: Lander University’s Doug McAbee has starring role
September 28, 2020
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to star in the painting of a famous artist?
The “stay-at-home” days of the COVID-19 pandemic led Lander University artist Doug McAbee, of Laurens, to create a series of Instagram posts featuring paintings by famous artists side-by-side with his own interpretations of those artworks.
His clever “recreations” of the paintings, in which McAbee also is a focal point, are part of an exhibit, titled Instagram Remix. The 14 works of art are on display through Oct. 25 at the Center for Contemporary Art (CCA) in Columbia.
The “stay-at-home” days of the COVID-19 pandemic led Lander University artist Doug McAbee to create a series of Instagram posts featuring paintings by famous artists side by side with his own interpretations of those artworks. This post, featuring “Woman with Parasol” and McAbee’s recreation of the work, is one of 14 selections on display through Oct. 25 at the Center for Contemporary Art (CCA) in Columbia.
An associate professor of art in the Colleges of Arts and Humanities, McAbee said he was inspired to develop the Instagram posts as a way to make people smile.
“I saw that some museums around the world were encouraging patrons to recreate famous works of art using only what they had available around their homes during quarantine, and I decided I could do some funny takes on those,” he said.
His first post garnered such a positive response that he decided to do a new one every day. “I did one a day for 50 days,” McAbee said. “It entertained my family and me, and it allowed me to use the situation we were in to put something positive back out into the world.”
McAbee’s quarantine art is now more than social media posts. The exhibit selections have become colorful banners, each measuring 24 by 24 inches. Among the interpretations are “Woman with Parasol” by Claude Monet; “Portrait of Mada Primavesi” and “Sunflower” by Gustav Klimit; “Death of Marat” by Jacques-Louis David and “The Old Guitarist” by Pablo Picasso.
CCA is the largest nonprofit art center in South Carolina for continuous contemporary art exhibitions. It is located at 701 Whaley St. in the former community center of the Columbia Mill District, which encompasses the Whaley, Olympia and Granby neighborhoods.
