Roz Goldfarb has transformed her Upper West Side apartment’s den into an art studio. The 89-year-old spends a lot of her time there working on still-lives, portraits and more.
“I would rather be sitting here listening to classical music and working away rather than doing anything else,” Goldfarb said.
The lifelong Upper West Sider’s work is on display at the Cylindrical Gallery, a neighborhood tradition dating back to 1970. The kiosk is located on West 83rd Street near Broadway and, since 2017, has shown the work of local artists curated by sculptor G. Augustine Lynas.
“The kiosk itself belongs to the 83rd Street community,” she said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s a real New York story, and doing something like that, it looks a little bit like it’s out of Paris and it’s definitely for the people.”
Goldfarb studied art in college and has a master's in sculpture.
She has had several careers, including running a dress factory for her mother, working in education and in administration as director of Pratt Institute’s associate degree program, not to mention founder of Roz Goldfarb Associates, a design and branding recruiting firm.
She retired in 2010 and wondered what was next. She was inspired to enroll at the Art Students League to resume sculpting, and five years later started to paint.
She says it's wonderful for someone of her age to do something so gratifying that adds to their life, and as they do it, get better at it.
“So other things in your life are not so great, maybe like me you need hip surgery or something like that, so while other things diminish with age, this gets better, and that is a huge thing for anyone at this stage of life,” she said.
And that comes along with some neighborhood notoriety at the kiosk.
“We’ve gotten responses from our friends, telling how they enjoyed it, and this is my beautiful wife in this small studio in New York with a show in the smallest gallery in New York,” Al Jaff, her husband, said.
Roz Goldfarb’s art is on display at the Cylindrical Gallery through June 30.
