Columbus, Ohio USA
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Found at Sharon Weiss Gallery
Second shop opens in October at 24 E. Lincoln St.

by Margaret Marten
September/October 2018 Issue

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Gallery owner Sharon Weiss says she's always looking
for wonderful things to sell, not just fine art.
Photo © Larry Hamill

Sharon Weiss has spent nearly a quarter century in the Short North selling fine art and antiques. Her first shop, Antiques on Poplar, opened at 8 E. Poplar St. in the mid-90s, then changed its name to Antiques and Art on Poplar before finally moving to E. Lincoln St. in 2000 where fine art and the promotion of local artists gradually became her main focus. The name Sharon Weiss Gallery was adopted in 2003.

Over the years, the gallery’s stable of artists has grown, leaving little space for the antiques, handmade items, and other treasures Weiss values. “I’ve always wanted to have it just the way it was in the beginning,” she said. “I have so many contemporary local artists that I love, and there just isn’t room for everything."

The answer to her dilemma appeared recently next door at 24 E. Lincoln St. Previously home to Echoes Art & Antiques run by Tim Baker and Ken Naponiello – for a decade until 2009, the house rented out to non-retails for years before presenting art pop-ups this year. The recent vacancy caught Weiss’s attention. She realized that she could rent the little house, (right across the courtyard from her gallery), expand her inventory, and bring her love of antiques and treasure-hunting back into full swing. The property owner Wood Companies gave her the go-ahead, so Weiss’s second business, Found, is set to open in October.

“What happens is that people come in all the time sharing wonderful things that they’re doing, like handmade furniture, handmade books, whatever it may be,” she said.

One of those people, Connie Klema, will be offering her handmade furniture at Found. Klema refers to her work as sketches, pointing out that her craft is more of an art than a furniture-making process. “It’s not a finished work but an idea,” she said. Her tools are simple, the product is functional but not necessarily perfect or conformist. Klema is an attorney and real estate developer who co-owns Quinci Emporium in the Short North where one of her dining tables and other useful “sketches” she constructed have been put to practical use. Her talent for furniture-making surfaced only a couple years ago – although she did it as a kid – but her confidence, passion, and the beauty of much of her work gives credibility to her new vocation.

Brooke Albrecht’s beautiful handmade books, also available at Found, are again testimony to what talent and inspiration can do for someone practicing a newly acquired craft. Although she has worked as an illustrator on and off for decades, Albrecht’s journey into bookmaking is a recent development.

Brooke Albrecht's handmade books and papercuts will be available at Sharon Weiss's new shop Found. Visit brookealbrechtstudio.com to view her work.

“They’re nice because you can touch them,” she said. “There’s a tactile quality about them because they’re stitched and drawn.” She learned the fundamentals of book construction from a class, but the pen and ink drawing, stitching, and writing are where her skill as an artist truly resonates. No more than 8 to 20 pages long, the tiny volumes contain random thoughts and experiences. She chose simple subjects like her dog, a cat, her favorite quotes, tea. The process is therapeutic, she said. “I can daydream a lot.” Paper cutting is another one of her pastimes, and her website provides many creative, colorful samples of her work.

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Silver, lamps, pottery, glassware and furniture have filled every possible space in Sharon Weiss’s gallery at 20 E. Lincoln St. over the years. At Found she will finally be able to share more of that as well as local crafts and even pies if she can find a pie maker. “The house has history, it’s got a sweet little kitchen,” she said. “I’m hoping to have fresh coffee made and fresh tea. It’s going to be hopefully an inviting, welcoming space.”

Weiss has a deep love of history and antiques. Her frequent trips to Maine, where she and her partner Roger Pettry own a cottage, provide plenty of opportunities to stock up on merchandise. ”I am bringing to Columbus an early chalkboard from Maine for my opening of Found,” she said. “It is a beauty!”

Found’s grand opening is at 24 E. Lincoln St. on October 6, 2018 during Gallery Hop.
Visit www.sharonweissgallery.com

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