Nicolas Party's 'Dinner for 24 Dogs' at Salon 94

Yesterday Salon 94 Freemans presented Dinner for 24 Dogs, the new installation by Swiss artist Nicolas Party. Consisting of a dinner table setting––replete with plates and seating stools all designed by the artist––the work was conceived specially for a recent art dinner that took place in the gallery's uptown location. For the meal, Nicolas also created the menu (which included shellfish, pickles, and pasta) and served the guests himself, with the help of the gallery staff. "I wanted to serve the dishes because I thought it would be a little goofy, and it would put everyone more at ease." But this was not Nicolas' first art-dinner installation. "The one was in Glasgow a few years ago," he recalled. "Back then, I designed everything including the glasses and cutlery. Here, since I had one month to make the installation in New York, I focused on the main components."

The table's painted motifs are joyful and positively energetic, and perhaps even reminiscent of Matisse and Dufy. The plates are oversized and beautifully decorated with enamel paint; the stools had dog portraits drawn on them. Until the dinner, Nicolas had been drawing a lot of elephants, but for the occasion the artist sought something a little less serious and decided to draw a different dog on each cube. Salon 94 director Fabienne explained, "Nicolas chose the dog as the decorative animal to give the dinner more lightness and fun." And light and fun it was; at the end of the meal, guests reportedly rolled pieces of their cotton-candy dessert into little balls and playfully tossed them at one another across the table, enjoying the spirit of the installation.

Through December 22nd, 2012.

SALON 94 FREEMANS
1 Freeman Alley
New York, NY 10002
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