'As Is Wet Hoagie': Alex da Corte & Borna Sammak at Oko Gallery

As Is Wet Hoagie, currently on view at Oko Gallery, is the first collaborative show between Philly-born artists Borna Sammak and Alex da Corte (who shacked up with our friends at the Still House group last year for an artist's residency). The exhibition presents deli shop-windows filled with offerings like a giant hoagie (a Philly specialty), Barbasol, Bustelo coffee, DVDs, and Du Rags. The show is a tribute to the artists' native city. But it's also a new take on everyday myths; some delis are open all night, ready to make you any kind of sandwich or anything else you might want. From this point of view, the deli can be seen as a proteiform cornucopia––a modern symbol of a genie, but cheap and somewhat bizarre.

Borna and Alex display a true tour-de-force in the shop windows they've built inside the tiny Oko gallery space, made from things they've collected from delis over the years (as well as a few objects they created specially for this show). The giant artificial sub in the main room is the grail we all dream of ordering someday. Of course, the show reminded me of Justin Lowe and Jonah Freeman's installations, but here the artists address the nature of our unconscious-yet-real relationship with our convenient store-next-door, meant to immediately satisfy any type of need.

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Oko Gallery
220 East 10th St
NY, 10003 

Borna in front of Oko