Daily Inspiration: Meet Josh Friedman

Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Friedman.

Hi Josh, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I have always been fascinated by the visual world. For several decades, this curiosity lead me to teach art and design in Italy, Japan, Thailand, the US, and Vietnam. After the pandemic, I chose to pursue my creative practice in the studio full time. Now I encourage others to find beauty and share it.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Struggles? Yes. I viewed them as great empowering, growth opportunities.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Looking back and reflecting on past experiences informs my work that is realized through varying modalities and media. My current ceramic wall drawings and sculptures began after relocating my studio recently. While exploring distinct areas of my neighborhood- around the port, the cliffs and tide pools by the ocean, I was drawn to light and marks on forms’ surfaces that slowly develop over time. Recollections of these observations serve as the impetus for these artworks. As do, in part, my older memories of my trek through the 10th and 12th century temples of Siem Reap, Cambodia, and the 13th and 14th century temples of Sukhothai, Thailand in 2024.

My work’s relationship to nature, history and the past is non-linear. I have mining my older artworks as source material for collage. Deconstructing and reordering torn paper and ceramic shards into new work that predominately explore plane, line, and the edge of forms. Whether that be a torn piece of paper or the observed Southern Californian coastline.

Some recent ceramic work has been place in The Norton House, by Frank Gehry in Venice. A small ceramic box inspired by the Pacific Ocean, now sits in the owner’s office, modeled after a life guard tower, overlooking the boardwalk and the ocean. (It’s photographed here, along with interiors of the office and exterior of the house with the permission of the owner, Bill Norton.) Other of my ceramic drawings and sculptural vessels are on now view at Philip Stites Antiques on La Cienega, along side of 17th and 18th century European antiques. The gallery has curated my work into their booth at the upcoming San Francisco Fall Show of Art, Antiques, and Design. I appreciate that my work has evolved to the point where it is at home in diverse spaces highlighting a wide range of art historical periods and styles.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Playing in nature.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.joshfriedmanart.com
• Instagram: Joshfriedmanart

Image Credits
Josh Friedman
Guillaume Zulli