One of many stops was the Paula Cooper Gallery, where we found Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s riffs on everyday items. The show is titled ‘Things Around the House’, and works that once filled the artists’ home and studio are on display for the first time.
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Claes Oldenburg at the Paula Cooper Gallery
On a New York December day, Plinth spent an afternoon loping around the Chelsea gallery district. In very good company, too – the crowd included Cornelia Parker, artist Polly Apfelbaum and Ikon’s director Jonathan Watkins.
The exhibition is joyous, riotous. It is a celebration and an elevation of the everyday.
Polly Apfelbaum at the Paula Cooper Gallery
from Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Brugge's 'Things Around the House'
The exhibition is joyous, riotous. It is a celebration and an elevation of the everyday. The pair play with material, colour, scale and context, but the linking thread of the quotidian, the domestic, pulls strong through every piece. Oldenburg calls this phenomenon “the poetry of everywhere”.
from Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Brugge's 'Things Around the House'
...these most mundane objects prove to be springboards for some of the most exciting – and excited – work we saw in New York.
Musical instruments, light switches, apple cores, umbrellas and clothes pegs all provide ample inspiration, and these most mundane objects prove to be springboards for some of the most exciting – and excited – work we saw in New York.
Cornelia Parker at the Paula Cooper Gallery
The exhibition at the Paula Cooper Gallery finished on the 19th of December, but Oldenburg’s work is part of MoMA’s permanent collection. Catch him if you can.
Polly Apfelbaum is exhibiting at 56 HENRY (56 Henry Street) until January 24th: http://www.56henry.nyc
from Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Brugge's 'Things Around the House'