A lucky few will get to visit the late great Tom Wesselmann’s former studio in Cooper Square this month for an invite-only exhibition pairing the Pop Art pioneer’s work with that of the Japanese American contemporary artist Tomokazu Matsuyama. The exhibition, Wesselmann x Matsuyama (until 27 September), was organised by Wesselmann’s estate with support from Almine Rech and highlights both artists’ penchant for bold palettes, maximalist compositions and incorporating mass-produced imagery from advertising to packaging design. It builds on a previous juxtaposition of their work in Pop Forever Tom Wesselmann &…, a 2024-25 exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.
For this show, staged in the space where Wesselmann made most of his work between 1994 and his death in 2004, the Pop artist’s estate has paired seven of his works with five pieces by Matsuyama. They include Wesselmann's billboard-sized, four-canvas painting with collaged elements, Still Life #35 (1963), and Matsuyama’s similarly monumental We The People (2025). Wesselmann’s composition, a post-war American riff on classical still-lifes, depicts a table set with branded foods and drinks including Made Rite bread and Royal Crown Cola. Matsuyama’s cinematic composition, meanwhile, could depict the grocery shopping session that preceded Wesselmann’s consumerist spread: a dozen figures whose poses allude to classic paintings by Jacques-Louis David are seen exploring the offerings in a supermarket’s breakfast and pharmacy aisles, eyeing packages of Chex cereal, Mucinex cough medicine and more.
