“Keeping Time,” Michael Farrell’s new collection of boxes is on display in January 5-28 at WallSpace-LNK, 1624 S. 17, Lincoln. A First Friday opening reception runs from 5-8 p.m., Friday, January 6. These three dimensional still life assemblages offer meditations on the concept of impermanence, tinged with nostalgia, eroticism or wit. The collection was created over the last several weeks since Farrell’s seventy-fifth birthday.

“Sometimes life events cause one to reconsider everything. The counters reset to zero and you start over again. Many of these boxes had been sitting in an unfinished state in my studio, sometimes over decades, waiting to be paid attention to. Others just sprung to life fresh once I started working this way again,” the artist stated.

With titles like Nymph, Satyr, Herm, Kouros and Jeune Fille these objects remind us of the bittersweet fragility of life, the fruitlessness of ego, and the comedy of the human condition.  This tradition in western art dates back to the foundations of our European culture. But perhaps it is more appreciated in the Japanese idea of “wabi sabi,” the beauty found in the worn out, decayed or broken.

Michael Farrell has been making assembled objects for over five decades. His exhibition spanning his box making career, “Inside the Box”drew large attendance and sales last year at WallSpace-LNK. Noted art critic L. Kent Wolgamott observed Farrell’s “subtly stunning” work “continually reveals new ideas and emotions. That’s a primary function of art.”