Summer Shop at Karma
Karma is a West Village shop founded by Brendan Dugan. If you are not familiar with the name, Brendan runs a graphic design studio and a publishing practice called “An Art Service”. An Art Service creates beautifully designed books and printed matter in collaboration with artists like Dan Colen, Paul McCarthy, Bjarne Melgaard, Ryan McGinley or Rob Pruitt. To take the control of the whole process of the book conception, production and distribution, Brendan has dedicated the storefront of his office/gallery/publishing house space to a bookshop, Karma.
Karma is often hosting pop-up shop and events, and it’s currently the home of a theme project shop named “Summer“. Curated by Aaron Aujla and Dylan Bailey, the shop might make you raise an eyebrow when seen in the New York context of it, if you don’t look into their real intent. Aujla and Bailey, respectively artists and assistants to Nate Lowman and Dan Colen, have collected a series of objects that try to replicate those found from homes along the coast. Hence, the collection of object includes white cotton towels and linens, buckets meticulously hand painted to resemble enameled metal, large dining table made from found drift wood, shell vases, white plates and tanning lotions.
Through this collection of objects, the authors have transformed the West Village book-shop in a place that resembles any kind of beach resort goodie market. By recreating this particular mood and ambient Aujla and Bailey thus reveal ‘the culture of beach side artistry and its inner-workings’. Even though the artists have long debated about the concept, completing a thorough analysis of home décor stores, maybe the best thing about the whole operation is that the potential artistic pretension leaves room for an appealing and cosy everyday shop.
