30 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {punchline} The Studio Shop Gallery also pivoted during the pandemic. “Everyone was at home, no one could travel—and so people were actually finally staring at their walls,” Stephanie recalls. The gallery created an art rental program so homeowners could fill those empty spaces. “We’d bring it out to your house with our gloves and our masks and our booties on,” Janet says. Many people ended up buying the rented art. Studio Shop also supported artists by hosting a series of solo shows: 10 artists over 10 weeks. Almost all of them sold out. There’s a sense of awe to the way Stephanie describes matching the right art with the right owner. “Art is so personal,” she says. “I call it the soul of the house.” She motions to a couch “where you can bask in the presence of the art” and explains how their large onsite inventory allows the shop to easily introduce collectors to a wide range of pieces. “Having that immediacy and being able to show people different things is really important,” she reflects. At the gallery, they never try to force that process. “It needs to come from the heart. You know when it’s the right piece.” Does the gallery’s director have a favorite piece at home? Stephanie mentions a figurative abstract by Melinda Matyas, titled I’ve Shaken Off the Dust of the Lands, “which is kind of a reference to getting rid of negativity,” she describes. “It’s in my bedroom, so when I wake up in the morning, I can see it and it always reminds me, ‘Keep going.’” The sentiment holds for the Studio Shop Gallery, too. It has persevered through two pandemics (COVID and the Spanish Flu), the Great Depression, the Great Recession and two World Wars. And if Stephanie has anything to say about it, there will be many more years to come. PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF: STUDIO SHOP GALLERY / ANNIE BARNETT picture this studioshopgallery.com ABOVE: (top) Janet Martin’s father, John Benson, at work in the frame shop; (at right) Janet, Carl and Stephanie share a laugh in the gallery.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTcxMjMwNg==