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since 1907
Lowy1907 Lowy Framing & Restoration
Lowy’s reputation for excellence is largely due to our staff of highly educated professional art conservation and museum-quality frame consultants. Clients throughout the fine arts community consistently seek our guidance and expertise for their individual conservation and framing needs. Whether serving private collectors, art advisors, museum curators, auction houses, galleries, architects, interior designers or artists, our consultants provide unparalleled knowledge and personalized assistance in everything from assessing the condition of artwork and recommending proper conservation treatments to providing aesthetically appropriate antique, reproduction and contemporary frames.
We also review and evaluate entire collections. Our consultants have helped numerous private collectors determine priorities and plan expenditures. Our commitment to offering the highest quality, most comprehensive curatorial services is unsurpassed in the industry.
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Larry Shar PRESIDENT
Larry is head of the oldest and largest fine arts services firm in the country, upholding the tradition of excellence that has come to define this family-owned company for three generations. Larry’s association with Lowy began as a child, when he accompanied his father, Hilly, to work. Under his father’s guidance, he learned all aspects of the business, from cleaning and lining paintings to gilding, burnishing, and finishing frames. Larry joined Lowy professionally, after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Brandeis University in 1969. Ten years later, he succeeded his father as president.
His myriad responsibilities include advising museums, galleries and private collectors on conservation and framing issues and traveling worldwide to purchase antique frames for Lowy’s superlative inventory, the largest in the country. He sees himself as a picture doctor and stylist, helping artworks to show their best colors and live into perpetuity. A longtime member of the American Institute of Conservation, the Art and Antique Dealers League of America and the Appraisers Association of America, Larry also advises clients on the quality and value of their artworks and how to prioritize a collection’s needs. He is a highly visible ambassador on the international art scene for the museum-caliber products and services for which Lowy has been widely respected for more than a century.
Brad Shar VICE PRESIDENT & GENERAL MANAGER
Brad Shar has been working alongside his father in the family business since 1991. He joined Lowy while attending the New School, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in art history in 1996. Brad’s interests in both the arts and technology have proven to be a perfect fit for the firm, allowing him to assume many roles. In addition to managing Lowy’s art conservation and framing workshops, he consults with clients, oversees human resources, and develops and manages Lowy’s computer systems and website.
He also introduced LowyScan, a state-of-the-art digital imaging system used for matching paintings with appropriate frames, establishing Lowy as the first fine art services company to offer virtual framing. Brad sees himself as a bridge between the past and future, as he continues to bring cutting-edge technology to Lowy, while maintaining the uncompromising standards of old-world craftsmanship for which the firm is known. He enjoys the artistic environment at Lowy, which offers hands-on experience with world-famous artworks and the opportunity to work with a close-knit team of veteran conservators and frame makers.
Lisa Wyer VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES
Lisa has been with Lowy since 1988 acting as a consultant to museums, galleries and private collectors. She works closely with clients to accommodate their individual needs, recommending framing and conservation treatments for fine artworks. Lisa also assists with day-to-day operations, functioning as a liaison between Lowy’s departments and ensuring timely, first rate service. Additionally, she has organized traveling exhibitions of antique frames from Lowy’s extensive inventory, and has overseen Lowy’s participation in various antique fairs including New York’s prestigious annual Winter Antiques Show.
Lisa’s arts-related background is ideally suited to her position at Lowy. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in art and music, and received a master’s degree in fine art from Pratt Institute in 1984. Thereafter, she worked as an assistant printer at a lithography atelier in New York and as a sales consultant for archival materials. At Lowy, her keen aesthetic eye and business acumen have helped to forge longstanding client relationships. Lisa enjoys researching the history of frames, knowing that clients not only rely on Lowy’s long established expertise in conservation but in matching frames to various periods and styles of paintings.
Rebecca Vicars SALES MANAGER
Rebecca received her MFA from Tyler School of Art and has been sharing her expertise with the Art and Design community for over 10 years. First as a student and then professor of fine art, she spent years immersed in the history and language of traditional and contemporary art. As a design consultant, she further refined her eye assisting designers select framing to suit the compositional, conceptual and genre specific needs of their clients’ works. Over the years Rebecca has developed great respect for the framing process as she knows it can effectively determine whether or not an artists' work becomes fully realized.
Rebecca continues to maintain an active studio practice in which her pursuits range from capturing pattern filled interiors and still-life inspired by her love of Vuillard and antique textiles to her Gauguin like tropical works inspired by time spent living in Guatemala. She has a special affinity for color, which she attributes to growing up in her father’s “studio” where he designed and built street rods in bold and saturated palettes. For Rebecca, the process of making and engaging with works of art is a special opportunity to see, process and express in a much deeper way than we do in our normal day to day activities.
R Wayne Reynolds SENIOR COLLECTION CONSULTANT
Wayne joined Lowy in 2005, bringing with him more than 25 years of experience in conservation and restoration of gilded objects and a vast knowledge of framing history. He works with Lowy’s artisans to oversee all aspects of frame restoration and reproduction, ensuring that deadlines are met and that each frame leaves the workshop with the consistent high-quality craftsmanship for which Lowy is known. Wayne also designs new frame models, combining traditional frame-making methods with modern technology, and gives demonstrations and lectures on the history of gilding and frame-making at museums and arts organizations.
When needed, he provides condition surveys and on-site frame conservation treatments for museums, galleries and private collectors. He enjoys interactions with clients as much as the detailed work of hands-on gilding. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in painting from the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore in 1975, Wayne founded R. Wayne Reynolds, a Baltimore company devoted to gilding, and worked in the frame conservation department of The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. He also worked for Sotheby’s Restoration for three years in New York as head of its gilding department.
Bill Santel CHIEF CONSERVATOR
Bill has been with Lowy for more than 30 years, having worked with such notable conservators such as Gustav Berger, Margaret Watherston and Marco Grassi early in his career. He oversees Lowy’s conservation department, while continuing to apply his own considerable conservation skills, including cleaning, inpainting and lining, to the many masterpieces that pass through Lowy’s doors. His extensive experience and knowledge of conservation ensure the continued quality and efficiency that the art community has come to expect from Lowy. His responsibilities also include staffing the department with the finest talent available and keeping abreast of ongoing scientific advancements, which have contributed to Lowy’s reputation as a leader in the field.
Bill graduated from City College in New York in 1972 with a bachelor’s in art history, having also taken additional courses in studio art at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. He worked for two New York conservation firms, one headed by Berger the other by Watherston, before joining Lowy. Bill, a dedicated painter himself, especially enjoys contributing to the transformation a painting undergoes when it is properly and beautifully conserved.
Lauren Rich PAINTING CONSERVATOR
Before joining the Lowy team, Lauren aided in the conservation of landmarks across the country such as the Boston Opera House, erected in 1925, and the John Adams Courthouse, erected in 1893 as well as interning in the conservation department at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. While obtaining her conservation degree in Florence Italy, she worked on a multitude of projects including a rare opportunity to travel to Serbia and assist the Center of Preventative Conservation, a division of the National Museum of Belgrade, in their aim to preserve their cultural heritage.
Lauren graduated from New York University in 2001 with a dual major in Fine Arts and Renaissance Literature. In addition to obtaining her Master’s Degree in Conservation, she studied the physical sciences at Harvard University. During her undergraduate years she worked for the distinguished Fischbach Gallery in Manhattan where she attained hands-on experience with collection maintenance. At the early age of seven, she began classical training in the execution of oil painting that has helped to shape her love and consideration for the preservation of fine art.
Michael Tramis SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Michael has been known to do a lot around the office, but his best work is behind the lens. His background in architectural photography has been an asset when it comes to capturing the 5000+ frames and projects within Lowy and on job sites - galleries to homes. Michael documents the process so Lowy can share the journey with it's customers. His work, along with the photography of Jon Lopez, can be found on our Flickr site.
Rebecca Rinker CUSTOMER RELATIONS MANAGER
Rebecca Rinker has worked at Lowy for 12 years as a Customer Relations Manager overseeing customer service, office management and general inquiries. She is originally from Arkansas, holds a Master of Arts in creative writing and enjoys being immersed in the always-exciting New York art world.
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The Lowy Family
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