The James Cox Gallery at Woodstock will open its fall season with an exhibit of paintings and sculpture by the prolific, well-known outsider artist Joseph Garlock (1884-1980). The exhibit will kick off with a public opening reception Friday, September 4, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the gallery’s showrooms, located at 4666 State Route 212 in Willow, NY. The entire Garlock exhibit can be viewed at James Cox Gallery.
James Cox discovered Garlock’s work in 2000 when the artist’s family approached him about handling their grandfather’s estate. Upon the death of the artist’s daughter Rose, a long-time resident of , NY, Garlock’s grandchildren discovered a huge trove of their grandfather’s paintings and sculpture stored in a shed behind the home Rose shared with her father. “Much of the work was in need of restoration”, Cox recalled, “but most of the paintings and sculpture we uncovered are just dazzling.”
Garlock was a true self-taught artist. After being arrested in Russia as a student radical, he fled the pogroms with his wife Anna, arriving at Ellis Island in 1904. He began his life in the United States on New York’s Lower East Side, eventually moving to Bloomfield, N.J., where he and Anna raised their family. There he worked as a cobbler, owned a small vegetable market, and even drove a bus between his home in Bloomfield and Watsessing, N.J.
All the while he was pursuing his passion, quietly creating artwork from whatever materials were available. He painted on canvas, as well as cardboard and shirt box lids. He crafted many whimsical sculptures from tree branches, driftwood, and plywood. Some of his works were created from imagination; many others were based on magazine photos of famous people or images that intrigued him.
For more information, contact the gallery at 845-679-7608 or email [email protected].
The exhibit will be on view through October 4. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and noon to 5 p.m. on weekends.
