Around Christmas time I wrote a preview of New York artist and designer Jonathan Adler‘s exhibit “Reform” at Temple Rodeph Shalom for PW. Read here. I was also madly shopping online for presents for in-laws and decided to buy something from the PMA online store (highly recommended). While I was deciding what to put in my shopping cart I happened upon what I considered a serendipitous cross-fertilization between Rodoph Shalom’s show and the PMA — to wit, a mustachioed, Salvador Dali vase by Adler, for sale at the PMA. ($100)
Nothing in the world of commerce is really serendipitous. I assume the PMA commissioned the vase for the Dali show. And the Adler show at Rodeph Shalom, well that’s a nice instance of cross-town programming, organized, by the way, by Rodeph’s curator, Matt Singer, who works at the PMA! Adler’s pots are influenced by his immersion in reform synagogues as a kid and in the pop sensibility of the 1970s. I’ve held one in my hands, a little pot-bellied, striped vase with a capacity to hold one single flower, and it’s a curvy, sexy, understated love of a pot. And if you’re in New York — or Miami Beach or Los Angeles, you can check out Adler’s empire. He’s got stores. Check out the empire online at his website. Don’t miss the manifesto page in which he says he believes celebrities should pay full price.
