The Store of Sturtevant's The Store of Claes Oldenburg: Solo exhibition by Reniel Del Rosario

On December 1, 2023, exactly 62 years from the day that Claes Oldenburg opened The Store at a storefront space on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Praise Shadows will open at our storefront gallery The Store of Sturtevant's The Store of Claes Oldenburg by Bay Area artist Reniel Del Rosario. The exhibition explores mimicry and 'bootlegging' through the appropriation of Elaine Sturtevant's artwork The Store of Claes Oldenburg (1967) and Oldenburg's The Store (1961). 

An artist talk moderated by Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander, the Robert M. and Ruth L. Halperin Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and the Co-Director of the Asian American Art Initiative at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, was hosted on December 2 at the Cooidge Corner Theatre. Watch the Instagram Live recording here.

The exhibition, consisting of clay paintings, ceramics, and soft sculptures, began as an idea during Del Rosario’s undergraduate career at UC Berkeley. He was introduced early on to the work of Elaine Sturtevant, who became an inspiration for him in his clay-based art practice. It was through Sturtevant that Del Rosario learned about Oldenburg’s The Store, an iconic work in Pop Art history. Using plaster as his medium, Oldenburg mimicked consumer goods as mundane as cigarettes, undergarments and blueberry pie. Sturtevant’s version also used plaster, whereas Del Rosario’s presentation focuses on clay as the primary medium, along with some soft textile-based sculptures (which mimic original Oldenburg and Sturtevant soft sculptures).