We celebrate 25 years of McColl Center by celebrating the artists who have been in residence since we opened our studio doors in 1999. McColl Center's artist residency program has provided space, resources, and community to nearly 500 contemporary artists from around the world and around the block. Today, we feature Marek Ranis, an Affiliate Artist-in-Residence at McColl Center from 1999-2001.
Marek Ranis is a post-studio artist. He creates within and from the environment, beyond the box of studio walls.
Out there, he makes sculptures, videos, paintings, photographs, and installations. It's all made with such care and patience for the anthropological surroundings that experiencing his work turns the viewer into a participant in a matter of heartbeats.
Ranis started his journey in a studio, as most artists do. He grew up in Poland and came to Charlotte in 1997. Two years later, in 1999, he was part of the first cohort of artists at McColl Center, a then-new and buzzing urban artist residency in downtown Charlotte.
“It was an opportunity to suddenly have a space and a pretty active open studio,” Ranis says. "Visitors were coming into your studio and asking questions, learning about you and your work. It was a tremendous exposure.”
The impact was immediate.
“It was a tremendous benefit to my career, and not only my professional career but also as an individual, for my social life and for meeting people,” he says. “It was a really, really big thing.” Charlotte was a different city back then, experiencing a cultural boom that continues today, especially in the arts scene.
Ranis adds: “There has been tremendous growth [in Charlotte], of people who moved here, who decided to stay here, who are active artists. In the late 90s and early 2000s, I feel like there were maybe a handful of professional artists here, really not so many of us. McColl Center played a tremendous role in growing this community.”
Ranis stayed in Charlotte, became a beacon in the burgeoning art scene, and even served on McColl Center's board of directors for six years after his residency.
Alongside his busy art practice, exhibitions, residencies, and travels around the world, Ranis is also a professor in the Department of Art & Art History at UNC Charlotte. He continues to grow and nurture the present and future of Charlotte's art scene.
“My students [at UNC Charlotte] are staying, they’re not leaving Charlotte, they’re staying,” Ranis reveals. “They’re capable of continuing their professional practice here and some of them, right after they have graduated, go through a McColl Center experience that allows them to keep the momentum going and work.”
Learn more about Marek Ranis and view his artwork.
