Press and Exhibitions
Select Exhibitions, Publications, Podcasts, Presentations, and Market News.
Colin McNair’s carvings have been featured in museum exhibitions, national publications, record setting auctions, and sporting art venues. This page includes select exhibitions, publications, galleries, talks, and press—highlighting both Colin’s work and notable appearances with fellow artisans Mark S. McNair and Ian T. McNair.
The Winter Sale 2026, February 20-21, Copley Fine Art Auctions. Bid live on new and vintage carvings by Colin, Mark, and Ian McNair. Colin’s latest swordfish and narwhal are both in this major auction. Copley Fine Art Auctions, Pembroke, MA, February
Southeastern Wildlife Exposition (SEWE), Charleston, SC February 13-15, 2026. The McNairs are celebrating over 20 years of taking part in this epic event. Colin will be on hand as a Decoy Specialist with Copley Fine Art Auctions and he is again presenting a daily presentation of his Introduction to American Bird Decoys. Visit us at the Copley Auction Preview in the Marriott on Lockwood Blvd. Mark McNair will return as a featured artist with carving demonstrations beginning at Thursday’s Black-Tie Gala and continuing through Saturday at the Copley Auction Preview.
Colin, Mark, and Ian at the Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Museum, 2025
New Auction Records set at the Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Museum, McNair & Sons Decoys auction. Copley was a proud sponsor the McNair & Sons Decoys Exhibition featuring the Cromwell Collection at The Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Museum. The sold-out exhibition opening event was capped off by a special three-lot auction with donation carvings from Mark, Ian, and Colin McNair to benefit the museum. A flurry of online, in-person, and phone bidding resulted in the first two lots selling to Copley phone bidders. Mark's "de Witt Cottage Rig" Preening Wood Duck brought over $35,000. Colin's "Little Mermaid" swam to $11,500 and Ian McNair's "Spring Island" Blue-Winged Teal went over $3,400, more than 5 times its pre-sale estimate.
Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer joined the event and the Blue Angels provided a thrilling airshow along the beach.
McNair & Sons Decoys at the Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Museum, September 2025
Mark and Colin McNair shared the stage at the Peoria Riverfront Museum. Special Thanks for support from Art Bridges and Copley Fine Art Auctions.
Center For American Decoys, Peoria Riverfront Museum, Celebrate American Bird Decoys with Carver Mark McNair and Decoy Specialist Colin McNair, Special museum program, June 6-7, 2025. Support provided by Art Bridges Foundation and Copley Fine Art Auctions.
Mark McNair in his studio, 2023. Courtesy of Garden & Gun. Photo by Gately Williams
Front cover of Modern Huntsman, Volume 11, 2023 featuring a McNair pintail drake.
Front cover of Wings of Wonder, published by Sporting Classics.
Wings of Wonder: The Remarkable Story of The Cobb Family and the Priceless Decoys They Created on Their Island Paradise, Book, By Dr. S. Lloyd Newberry, Sporting Classics, 2020, Contributing Author on Decoy X-Rays.
The Real Decoys: Eastern Shore family creates world-class folk art, Distinction Magazine, Fall 2020
Annual Special Exhibition and Sale of Carvings by Father and Sons McNair, The Audubon Gallery, Charleston, South Carolina, February 2012-2019.
Antiques and The Arts Weekly, July 2015.
Exhibition and Sale of New Works by The McNairs, Mark, Ian, and Colin July 24-25, 2015,
The Nature of American Bird Decoys, lecture, The Fall Antiques Show, Virginia and the The Downtown Association, NYC, 2014
The Sporting Sale 2014, Auction, Copley Fine Art Auctions
Copley Spotlight, Copley Fine Art Auctions, 2013
The Sporting Sale 2013, Auction, Copley Fine Art Auctions
Carving a Legacy, College of Charleston Magazine, Spring 2015 (view pdf)
Bonfire of Swans, Book, Creekside Art Gallery , 2012, contributing author
Chesapeake Life Magazine, The Next Generation, November 2008.
Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Salisbury, Maryland | Chips Off The Old Block: Decoy Traditions Of Virginia’s Eastern Shore | June 30 - November 12, 2006. Exhibited
Colin is the contributing author on decoy X-Rays in this new and definitive book on Cobb Island decoys.
From an ongoing lecture circuit on the subject of Decoy X-Rays
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As Copley Fine Art Auction’s Decoy Specialist, Colin is regular guest on the Ducks Unlimited Podcast. He also shares specialist presentations for clubs and events across the country.
Ducks Unlimited Podcast. Episode 738, 2025. Recorded at the McNair’s home on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, host Katie Burke explores his path from Guilford, Connecticut to the marsh, the mentors who pushed him, and the community that keeps carving fresh. You’ll hear the “alchemist workshop” approach, stories from Easton Waterfowl Festival, and why sometimes the best move is tossing a failed head in the stove and starting again.
Mark, Colin and Ian McNair sit down with DU podcast host at the 2025 DU Expo (DUX).
Commissions
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Press Downloads
If you are writing an article about Colin online, you are free to use images of our work on your website or blog if you use proper credits, and alert us prior to publishing. You can download low-res images of Colin's work by copying from the website gallery.
If you would like to feature Colin in a book or magazine, please email us to request hi-res images. We request that you properly credit each piece and send us a printed copy of your book, magazine, or newspaper in the mail for our archive.
“It is not the material or the style that matters: It is what happened in the hands of the man who made it. The one question was and is: Does the decoy catch the bird in body and spirit? If it does, we may truly call it art.”
From a series of informational shorts for Copley Fine Art Auctions