#consumer-culture

#consumer-culture

Cold Front presents new work by Trey Abdella that examines how ceremony, tradition, and commercialization intersect within the visual language of winter. In works that merge hyperreal figuration with resin, glitter, and lenticular surfaces, Abdella stages scenes where warmth and danger coexist. Through layered, mixed-media compositions, he reflects on the seasonal performance of comfort and festivity, tracing how sentiment, excess, and artificiality intertwine.

When the doors open, we move toward the entrance in an orderly march. There's a small gasp upon entry-the kind of quiet awe that one feels before the most epic human achievements, as when stepping across the threshold of St. Peter's or the Chartres Cathedral. But in this place, there is no baroque majesty, no stained glass, just abundance bathed in light.

Upon entering the one-day immersive installation known as GrazaVerse, guests were greeted with a surrealist tableau: a Renaissance-style cherub statue "peeing" olive oil, with bread skewers for dipping, risotto served by a mysterious set of disembodied hands behind a wall, and a soap dispenser filled with olive oil for drizzling on soft serve. As bizarre or offbeat this event, built to introduce olive oil brand Graza's new glass bottles, might sound, it represents a cross-industry trend in which brand creative is getting ... weird.

The Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the United States on 18 October 1985: about a year after I was born, and 40 years ago today. It's as if the company sensed that a sucker who'd spend thousands of dollars on plastic toys and electronic games had just entered the world. Actually, it's as if the company had sensed that an entire generation of fools like me was about to enter the world. Which is true. That was the time to strike.

In the world of contemporary art, where irony and introspection often collide, Ant Hamlyn has carved a space all his own. Known for his playful yet poignant use of polyurethane-coated fabrics and glossy acrylic panels, Hamlyn transforms the familiar into something uncanny - objects both soft and suffocating, tangible yet trapped. His works invite laughter at first glance but quickly turn contemplative, drawing on centuries of artistic tradition while reinterpreting it through the lens of modern excess and digital aesthetics.

Consumer culture didn't just take our villages: It left us with parents too overwhelmed to fully show up.

The price of Coca-Cola was famously fixed at a nickel between 1886 and 1959, allowing the brand to embed itself into American consumer culture.

For Noam Welz, fashion is a physical form of commentary, a surface for emotion, provocation, and social reflection.

I always believe in the serotonin-boosting power of trinkets and tchotchkes, but especially when they're functional. That's what I'm so enamored by the influx of personality-forward, food-themed phone cases in recent years.

Coffee-flavored Jell-O first hit the market in 1908, a surprising addition to the brand's typically fruity and kid-friendly lineup. Although it may seem unusual today, coffee gelatin itself wasn't a new invention.

Trader Joe's is launching pistachio-infused chocolate bars influenced by the Dubai chocolate trend, priced at $3.99 and hitting stores on May 28.

When you hear the phrase, brand mascot, who do you think of? For me it's Frosties' Tony the Tiger. Probably because I always wanted Frosties as a child and wasn't allowed them often. Or maybe because the slogan was so grrrreat (three 'r's, I checked).

"Can I go somewhere where someone isn't shoving 'DONT YOU WANT TO BE BEAUTIFUL' down my throat?" they just seem to creep in when I'm trying to relax."