From transformation to transcendence, folk art creates joy and beauty by endowing everyday objects, often mass produced, with uniqueness and individuality. This month, Freeform Gallery highlights the work of Fairfield folk artist Joseph Boxerman in an exhibition entitled Whimsy, Wit and Wonder: An Exhibition in Honor of My Art Professor Jim Melchert, opening on November 1.
The exhibit features envelopes, mobiles, a painted chair, a collage clock, painted wood animals, and other painted objects, “taking the ordinary and transforming it to the extraordinaire,” says the artist.
“I have been doing unique envelopes all my life, since the age of 11, when we moved from Brooklyn, New York, to Los Angeles,” Boxerman explains. “I would exchange goofy letters with friends I left behind. Jim Melchert’s art class at UC Berkeley in 1967 emphasized authenticity—be yourself. That is when I realized there are no boundaries to artistic expression, no mold to fall into. When Covid hit in 2020 and we were all locked down, I took out my art materials and found an explosion of all possibilities in creating every sort of design on envelopes. This has led to doing art on an expanding variety of surfaces and objects.”
Freeform Gallery is located at 508 North 2nd Street, Suite 104, across from Everybody’s. Gallery hours are Tuesday & Thursday 6–9 p.m., and Wednesday, Friday, Saturday 10 a.m.–2 p.m.