Art You Can Buy

Ben Denzer '15 knows that if he wants to keep doing art, he's going to have to sell it. He also has a lot of books (and sweatshirts and glass blown Tito's bottles) to get rid of.Denzer is the artist behind S-T-O-R-E-D, a pop-up art store, and the latest student exhibition in the Lucas Gallery of  the Lewis Center for the Arts. Included in the collection are books on wheels, artistically altered Tito's bottles, and postcards featuring screenshots of Facebook invitations for a party he threw. Denzer is "mixing a store, mixing a gallery, mixing a yard sale," he says. Everything is for sale on the spot, and many items can also be purchased in the accompanying online store.The exhibition raises questions about art as a commodity, an issue Denzer thinks artists should address directly. An architecture major getting a certificate in visual art, Denzer said he wants to keep making art after graduation and selling his art online is the best way to make sure that he can keep doing it.

Some have commented that the focus on making a sale diminishes artistic value, Denzer said. But he thinks that, for most people, it actually adds to the experience of the work. The exhibition is doing well - attendance is good, and many people on campus have heard about it, not a given for an art event at Princeton.

"More people can interact with the work," Denzer said. "With this stuff you can interact with it on the level of 'do I like it $20 worth? do I like it $10 worth?'"Every student in the visual arts department has to answer three "critical questions" to accompany their exhibition. Denzer commodified these, too, selling his answers on $1 postcards. One question asks about the relation of the project to its historical context."It acknowledges (rather than ignores) the fact that $ is a crucial part of art," Denzer writes.S-T-O-R-E-D's last day is tomorrow - 9 am to 5 pm at the Lewis Center.

 - KC and SP