PHOTOS COURTESY OF EUGENIA CHOI The outside of Art & Frame Express, located on Route 1 in Edison. EDISON — For many years, Eugenia Choi helped her family run Art & Frame Express in East Windsor, a picture framing gallery in Mercer County. After spending time learning the trade, she decided it was time to try things out on her own.
“My parents came over from Korea and they started the business,” Choi explained. “While I was in college I worked at the store, and after I was out of school I thought the time was right to go for it by myself.”
Fast-forward to about a month ago, when Choi opened the Edison location of the family business, located at 485 Route 1 at PlainfieldAvenue. Choi said the business has done well so far, with many people coming in to view some of the work created by local artists. Starting next month, she will host the first Local Artists and Photographers Exhibit, starting May 4 and running through the 29th. It will be the first major event held at the Edison location and will showcase the artwork of local residents and give them an opportunity to sell their work as well.
Art & Frame Express opened last month in Edison. The business will be hosting a Local Artists and Photographers Exhibit in May. “There’s been plenty of success at the East Windsor location when we’ve had these kinds of programs in previous years,” Choi said. “Each year that it was done in that location, the program got bigger and bigger as time went on, so I’m really excited to see what it’ll be like when we do it here in Edison.”
Choi said that in the past month, many local artists have come through her store and she has been very impressed with what she has seen.
“In East Windsor there are plenty of 55- and-over … communities, and so the people down there tended to be very tame with their work,” Choi said. “A lot of the work was done with watercolors. In Edison, I have seen a lot of work that’s been much more daring. The people in this area are so talented. We’re right near Rutgers [University] and Middlesex [County College], so it’s a lot of younger people wanting to show off their work. And the amazing thing is that a lot of the people around here just treat artwork as a hobby, just something that they do in their free time. Yet it is so, just so incredible, some of the pieces that I have seen.”
Choi’s goal for the upcoming exhibit is to have 15 to 20 people show their work, a modest goal for a locale that recently opened its doors.
“We’re a much smaller location than the East Windsor spot, but I really do feel like business has gone well so far,” Choi said. “People around here may not even realize the level of talent that is in our community.”
The deadline to submit artwork for the exhibit is April 24. For further information, go to www.MyFramingStore.com or call Choi at 732-777-0887.