
Jim Condron’s exhibition at the New York Studio School, curated by Karen Wilkin, continues his consistently thoughtful Collected Things series, inviting viewers to see everyday objects as vessels of personal and cultural memory. The sculptures, varying in size from around 20 to 96 inches, playfully transform seemingly ordinary items into layered narratives that bring unexpected elements together.
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Each sculpture in the exhibition tells its story, shaped by the materials and histories it brings together. Among them, a bold, 39-inch-tall work crafted from a vintage WC Brand Navy Boat Anchor rises with a stacked assortment of quirky items provided by gallerist Betty Cunningham. The anchor includes items such as a Jake Berthot fax, a New Yorker cartoon, a pink Post-it, and an image of a woman reminiscent of a Graham Nickson painting at the National Gallery of Art. The vertical, narrow form retains the anchor’s rugged character, while the attached components interlock like a cellular structure, reflecting the deep ties between Cunningham and the artists she champions.

Contributions from sculptor and former New York Studio School Dean Bruce Gagnier and artist Judy Glantzman offer a glimpse into their artistic perspectives. Gagnier supplied tools that once shaped his powerful figurative sculptures—wires for cutting and armature building, shapers, mallets, carving tools, and even a knife marked ‘MO,’ a nod to his butcher-shop upbringing, in one of the exhibition’s larger pieces—60 inches long—Condron rests these tools on a white plaster-draped vintage ladder. The elongated form, loosely echoing some elements of the Hellenistic sculpture Boxer at Rest from the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme in Rome, merges the raw materiality of sculptural practice with a refined classical reference.
Judy Glantzman’s Things reflects a different artistic sensibility. It resembles a jovial trio in vivid turquoise, brown, orange, green, and yellow. Jewelry, a Tiffany box, and playful elements like papier-mâché balloons and vintage play food transform into a layered exploration of biography and nostalgia, capturing the vibrant energy of an earlier era in the East Village art scene.


A particularly poignant piece, John Heliker’s Things, reverently memorializes the late painter and founding member of the New York Studio School. Here, personal items—Heliker’s well-worn painting chair, vintage Parliament cigarettes, and a self-reflective sketchbook—merge with Condron’s own oil painting. Mounted high on the wall, this hovering meditative memento mori casts dramatic shadows below, evoking Heliker’s enduring impact on the artistic community.

John Heliker’s Things, 2024.John Heliker’s painting chair, vintage Parliament cigarettes, John Heliker sketchbook, Jim Condron painting in oil on paper on linen, 29 x 22 x 18 inches. Photo courtesy of Etty Yaniv
While much of Condron’s work draws from the art world, some recent sculptures show his interests cut across different cultural realms. For instance, Condron taps into contributions from retail mogul Mickey Drexler, who provided everything from everyday clothing and a classic children’s book like The Little Engine That Could to signature accessories and even a Magic 8 Ball. These items sit alongside vintage memorabilia from JCrew, Madewell, and Gap, and they include personal wardrobe pieces—jeans, pajama pants, Soul Cycle t-shirts, belts, oxford shirts, wool sweaters, a pair of shoes, and his signature Selima glasses—as well as branded pieces from his role at Alex Mill, like shirts, a summer suit, seersucker pants, army-style jackets, and two pairs of socks featured in a Jimmy Kimmel ad.
Condron builds on Drexler’s items by adding his own vintage finds, including a Gap wool jacket once worn by his late mother. The clothes stack up between old textile mill bins, forming a tall, narrow totem of repetition—rhythmic, worn, and shaped by use. The transformation of these objects prompts you to consider how consumer culture and personal memory are always entangled.

Renowned drag icon, musician, and club personality Kevin Aviance contributed a flamboyant, psychedelic-infused assortment: a poster, an earring, false eyelashes, a pair of glittering sky-high pink-purplish platform heels, a clutch purse, and an imitation miniature plastic neon sign spelling ‘Cunty’—alluding to one of Aviance’s hit tracks sampled by Beyonce. Condron covered Aviance’s poster with glitter and mounted it on a fragment of a surfboard once ridden on towering waves by the legendary skimboarder Brad Domke. In this piece, performance, fashion, and sport converge, each carrying its own story and history.

Condron’s ongoing Collected Things series reveals how personal history and cultural identity become entangled in everyday stuff—how meaning clings to objects whether we notice it or not. Compared to its previous iteration at the expansive Art Cake venue in Brooklyn, this setting feels smaller, more intimate. Yet in this scaled-down space, each piece looms larger; every detail gives a clue to the mystery: How do these objects mirror the lives they once touched? And what objects in my own life would come to define me?
All photos courtesy of the artist and the New York Studio School unless otherwise indicated
Jim Condron: Collected Things at the Studio School
Curated by Karen Wilkin
Thu, January 30, 2025 – Sun, March 30, 2025