Tom Wesselmann's New York Studio is Opening to the Public for the First Time
And a duet exhibition with Tomokazu Matsuyama for Armory Week.
Summary
- Tom Wesselmann’s Cooper Square Studio will open to the public for the first time during Armory Week 2026
- Almine Rech is also unveiling a duet exhibition between the late pop artist and Japanese-American Tomokazu Matsuyama
- The exhibition is on view from September 19 through 26, with timed visits for the studio taking place throughout the week
Tom Wesselmann‘s longtime New York studio will welcome the public for the first time since the artist’s death. This Armory Week, fans of the American pop artist will get to experience the Cooper Square space, where many of his works were created during his final era, from 1994 to 2004.
Wesselmann, known for his “Great American Nude” series and larger-than-life commercial still lifes, saw his practice as a pursuit of “super reality,” — a way to elevate ordinary objects through monumental scale and saturated hues.
To ring in the opening, Almine Rech will also unveil Wesselmann x Matsuyama, a special duet exhibition pairing works by the pop pioneer with Tomokazu Matsuyama, a Japanese-American artist with a shared penchant for turning everyday moments into visually surreal and striking compositions.
“If Wesselmann transformed the visual language of postwar America from within its own culture,” a press statement reads, then “Matsuyama works within a visual world in which cultural boundaries are already porous.” Matsuyama’s kaleidoscopic pieces riff off ordinary imagery, while also reflecting on the cultural and historical complexities that define his era.
One standout moment pairs Wesselmann’s “Still Life #35” (1963), a massive four-canvas grocery haul, with Matsuyama’s “We The People” (2025). Here, the Japanese-American artist reimagines Jacques-Louis David’s “The Death of Socrates” as a supermarket scene. Lucky Charms boxes and neat stacks of Advil become one with art historical reference and dense patterning, making for scenes that, like Wesselmann, reconsider the role of consumerism within art.
The forthcoming show builds on the duo’s first go-around together during Pop Forever, Wesselmann’s 2024 retrospective at Fondation Louis Vuitton, building on the cross-generation creative dialogue between two artists that make us reflect on the possibilities of painting.
Presented by the Tom Wesselmann Estate and Almine Rech, Wesselmann x Matsuyama runs from September 19 through 27. Advance registration is required for the limited public opening of the Cooper Square studio, with timed visits taking place across three days during the exhibition run.
