Artist Spotlight

Ernest Lee has been painting on the streets of Columbia for decades, and his work has become as much a part of this city as the Congaree and the Gamecocks. Known by everyone as “The Chicken Man,” Ernest can be found on Gervais Street with a brush in hand, painting his signature funky chickens — wiry, dancing roosters in all manner of colors and costumes — on scrap wood, often irregularly cut or salvaged. Self-taught and deeply rooted in South Carolina life, he’s applied that same energy to portraits of cultural figures, rural landscapes, and some of the state’s most defining moments. Serious collectors count his work alongside pieces by Howard Finster and R.A. Miller as genuine American folk art.

His work has been showcased at the South Carolina State Museum and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in Washington, D.C. — and on street corners right here in Columbia. By Ernest’s own estimate, he’s made somewhere between 95,000 and 100,000 paintings in his lifetime — cranking out 7 to 12 a day before taking a few months off, then doing it all again. Every one carries that unmistakable hand, that burst of color, that feeling that someone made something because they simply had to.

The pieces available at The Warehouse are the real thing: no gallery markup, no middleman mystique, just Ernest Lee doing what he’s done his whole life. If you’ve ever driven down Gervais and slowed down to look, now’s your chance to take one home. You can also find more of his work and story at therealchickenmansc.com — coming soon.