Table Manners

“The table is a place of the greatest intimacy, a central point of memory, and a sanctuary where the imagination can freely unfold,” wrote French philosopher Gaston Bachelard in the 1958 book The Poetics of Space. “It is through the arrangement of objects and the personal rituals associated with it that the table transforms into a profound emotional and symbolic space.” 

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This sentiment captures the enduring appeal of the still life tradition throughout art history, a theme explored in James Cohan’s forthcoming group show “The Superfluity of Things,” opening September 6 at the gallery's 52 Walker Street location.

With the table and its contents as a focus and still life as a point of departure, the exhibition culls together works from an intergenerational group of over 20 artists from emerging talent to contemporary pioneers. Through a range of mediums and diverse perspectives, some artists view the table as a site of intimacy and memory, while others see it as a symbol of power or conflict. 

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The exhibition’s title is drawn from South Korea-born, Los Angeles-based artist Kyungmi Shin's superfluity of things, 2023, a mixed media work that merges three still life traditions to explore the impact of global trade on the genre and decode the cultural narratives associated with the objects represented. The work features an image of a 17th-century Dutch still life by Jacob van Hulsdonck that depicts fruits arranged in a Ming Dynasty porcelain bowl, superimposed over a found photograph of a Shamanic ritual offering. Silver-painted lines referencing the Korean still life tradition of Chaekgeori overlay both images, emphasizing Shin’s intention to "collapse all these different still life traditions on top of each other," as she explained in a 2024 interview with Brooklyn Rail. 

Vanitas art—still lifes where objects serve as metaphors for mortality, transience, and vain pursuits of earthly pleasures—emerges as the exhibition’s central motif.

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A few works embody the subgenre’s characteristically somber and contemplative tone. Spencer Finch’s Vanitas (Tulips), 2012, for example, is a triptych of photographs of dead, fallen petals in shades of yellow, violet, and peach. Its minimal composition, with generous blank space surrounding the delicate, withered flowers lends an austere quality that heightens the sense of quiet reflection and invites the viewer to ponder the fleeting nature of beauty.

In contrast, artists like Nicholas Bono Kennedy and Tom Wesselmann bring glimmers of playfulness to the tradition. Kennedy’s painting Pong, 2024, in deep, saturated colors, depicts a haphazardly arranged breakfast spread atop a blue ping-pong table. Similarly, Wesselmann’s Still Life #8, 1962, a humble depiction of a Ballantine Ale and grilled steak, offers a cheeky commentary on consumerism.

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Other artists in the exhibition examine the table as a place of human connection and memory, as seen in Thérèse Mulgrew’s photorealistic painting Card Game, 2024, a moody scene that captures a moment between friends with cinematic quality. Set in a room bathed in deep red tones, two pairs of manicured hands hold playing cards illuminated by flickering candlelight as a warmer glow casts long shadows. With meticulous attention to detail, the artist evokes a quiet sense of suspense.

Rachel Whiteread’s Untitled (Bulletin Board I), 2023, is emblematic of another of the exhibition's threads: the table as a ground for creativity, where ideas are generated. ​​Whiteread transforms a pinboard tacked with notes into a fossilized relic, rendering its once familiar surface in translucent resin. This erasure of context, a hallmark of Whiteread’s work, reflects on absence, turning the pinboard into a reminder of the traces we leave behind.

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As a whole, “The Superfluity of Things” presents viewers with endless interpretations of the everyday. It’s a welcome reminder to reconsider our spaces and the objects within them, perhaps making us more aware that there are imaginative, emotional, and nostalgic dimensions beyond the physical ones we plainly see.

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"The Superfluity of Things" is on view from September 6 until October 19, 2024 at James Cohan at 52 Walker St, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10013.