The Box Factory for the Arts is kicking off its 2025 Gallery Exhibition Series. The Series One exhibit has an array of creative artwork, including miniature works of art to take home.
‘Meet the Artists’ at The Box continues, with the Opening Reception on Sunday, January 19, from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Light refreshments will be available.
The multifaceted exhibition fills four galleries on all three floors of the historic Box Factory, located at 1101 Broad St. in St. Joseph. The artwork can be viewed Jan. 17 to Feb. 23, 2025. Winter hours are Thursday 12-6 p.m. and Friday-Sunday 12-4 p.m. Following are featured artists.
Here are highlights of the exhibition, provided by The Box Factory:
Williams Gallery (2nd floor, street level)
“The Quickest Way to Zen” by the Fun Squad
This exhibit puts an emphasis on fun! The Fun Squad is an artist collective based in Benton Harbor, MI. Fourteen professional artists will present a variety of works including paintings, drawings, mixed media, and found-art sculptures. Viewers are encouraged to interact with the art. “In the Fun Squad shows we invite viewers to have fun in the exhibition space,” says Clement Teo of Coloma, MI. “Our mission is to energize, revitalize and mesmerize.” The show also includes Fun Squad artists Nathan Margoni, Nathan Anderson, Ellen Nelson, Jennifer Zona, Jessica Hightower, Ben Good, Lea Bult, Laurie Rousseau, Ramiro Rodriguez, Mark Rospenda, Carr Pierce, Peyton Haggerty Brown, and Dean Campillo.
Whitlow Gallery (2nd floor, street level)
“Bunny Trails” by Jennifer Hauser
“Bunny Trails” is a collection of fantastical vignettes that one can imagine as a portal into a favorite picture book featuring a cast of bunnies and their woodland friends. “When you step through, you are transported into a new world with all the same parts, just put together differently,” says Jennifer Hauser of Downers Grove, IL. Her exhibit features 30 meticulously executed drawings in ink and colored pencil on primed masonite. The intricate, boldly colored drawings are reminiscent of the stained-glass windows she makes. Hauser, a Chicago-based architect by trade, prefers to draw with technical pens, relics of a past era in hand drafting architectural drawings, for their line quality and methodical technique.
“Mourning Bear” by T.J. Schwartz
T.J. Schwartz, of St. Joseph, calls upon the legend of Sleeping Bear to depict a language of trauma and connection using the traditional techniques of quilting, ceramics, and weaving. “Motherhood, folklore, and the land are intertwined in this work just as the materials conveying their complexity are layered together,” Schwartz says. She spent summers at Interlochen Arts Camp and has a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She now spends most of her time in her studio, teaching art, and volunteering in the community.
Riverwalk Gallery (1st floor, ground level)
Fiber artist Laurel Izard
Laurel Izard’s exhibition of hanging quilts she made from hand-embroidered, vintage baby blankets has a mission: to start a conversation about today’s important environmental and social justice issues – namely gun violence, school shootings, species extinction, and embedded gender roles. The award-winning artist makes art full time in Michigan City, IN, with her artist husband Edwin Shelton. After college – in which she received degrees in art and anthropology and a master’s in ceramics – Izard and Shelton started a ceramics business, Izwin, producing and selling whimsical tabletop wares throughout the country. She currently teaches textile-art workshops focusing on embroidery and quilts.
Abstract oil paintings by Keith Pastrick
Keith Pastrick’s creative process begins with observing the natural world around him: color, light, sound, and space. “I approach my canvas as an opportunity to encompass the visual and emotional aspects of my daily life,” says Pastrick, a full time artist living in New Buffalo, MI. A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Pastrick has been painting for over 35 years, primarily with oil. His work has been exhibited throughout Chicago and is in private collections around the world.
Skyview Gallery (3rd floor)
“Forest Aura – Color Prime” by Jacob Baerwald (shown below)
Jacob Baerwald’s body of work was shaped by an interest in heavily processing the digital photographs he was taking, and a fascination with how optics can shape and transform one’s perception of an otherwise familiar environment – in this case a wooded area near his parents’ home. “As a lover of impressionistic and abstract painting, this primarily out-of-focus photographic approach was a rather natural step to take,” Baerwald says. “I was able to create an alternative reality out of otherwise common Michigan woodland.” Baerwald is a photographer, sound artist, abstract illustrator and occasional painter living in the rural, orchard-laden regions near Coloma.
BONUS EXHIBIT AND SALE:
Miniature Works of Art to Take Home
More than 100 miniature, original works of art were donated by regional artists to the Box Factory for its second annual “Give a Little Love” fundraiser. Sales of the Miniatures will begin at the Opening Reception on Sunday, January 19, 1:30-3 p.m.
Each Miniature measures 4×6 inches and reflects the artist’s creative subject and medium. They are exhibited on the 3rd floor of the Box Factory as part of the Series One exhibit on display January 17 to February 23. The small works of art can be purchased for $35 each and taken home the same day, with proceeds going to support the Box Factory for the Arts.
Box Factory/Berrien Artist Guild members will have the first option to purchase Miniatures at an announced time at the opening reception on January 19; purchases by nonmembers will follow. If you’re not a member, now is the perfect time to join (and receive our monthly email newsletter)! Go to boxfactoryforthearts.org/membership and select a membership level to join.
