MoMA is opening a faux-food pop-up called MoMA Mart

"MoMA is opening a grocery store where absolutely nothing is edible-and that's the point. Launching on January 6, 2026, MoMA Mart is a limited-time pop-up from the MoMA Design Store that turns the mundane task of grocery shopping into a visual prank. Shelves are stocked not with snacks, but with objects that look like food at first glance and then reveal themselves as lamps, clocks, candles, stools and sculptural décor."

"The pop-up is inspired by a long-standing fascination with food as form, especially within modern and contemporary art. From early 20th-century experiments to Pop Art's embrace of mass consumption, artists have repeatedly returned to food as a way to talk about culture, desire and everyday life. MoMA Mart nods to that history, especially to figures like Claes Oldenburg and Ed Ruscha, without turning the space into a lecture."

""Food has always been a powerful cultural force, and designers are embracing it in fresh, imaginative ways," said Emmanuel Plat, director of merchandising at the museum, in an official statement. "MoMA Mart brings that creativity to life while drawing a line back to MoMA's own history of collecting faux-food objects that blur the boundaries between art, humor and daily experience.""

MoMA Mart opens January 6, 2026 as a limited-time pop-up from the MoMA Design Store that stages a grocery-store-like environment filled with faux-food design objects. Shelves display items that resemble familiar groceries but function as lamps, clocks, candles, stools and sculptural décor, many exclusive to MoMA and employing trompe-l'œil. Highlighted pieces include a tomato-shaped table lamp, pizza and sandwich clocks, produce-like vases and realistic candles. The pop-up draws on modern and contemporary art's long engagement with food as form, referencing figures like Claes Oldenburg and Ed Ruscha while prioritizing playful browsing over didactic interpretation.

Read at Time Out New York