Mercurial Mirabilia: Die Wunderkammer Exhibition at the Lodge in NYC

Sigrid Sarda, “Memento Mori”

Did you know that the Lower East Side conceals its very own cabinet of curiosities? Well, it’s true, but unfortunately only for few weeks, so if your New Yorker retinas needs to be tickled, you should definitly check out Die Wunderkammer: Objects of Virtue.

Presented by curators Jason Patrick Voegele and Keith Schweitzer (of Republic Worldwild) as a “exhibition of artistic oddities,” the wonderous artworks of 16 international artists continue a dialogue instigated in Renaissance Europe with the curious and unexpected of the wunderkammer and its flamboyant attempts to rationalize and classify our world and interrogate the fully-fledged aesthetic of nature’s virtuosity. 

With objects of worship, quirky machinery, and unidentified species, Die Wunderkammer is a contemporary interpretation of the cabinet of wonders, a collection of artifacts that inspire, amaze, and intrigue. The uncanny display has a beautiful and bizarre quality, one of iconoclast and melancholic beauty. 

Dennis McNett, “Wolfbat Spirit Wolf” 

Kate Clark, “Rivalry”

Madeline Von Foerster, “Reliquary for Saartjie”

Die Wunderkammer - Objects of Virtues is at The Lodge, 131 Christy Street, New York, through May 1, with works by Paul Brainard, Kate Clark, Lori Field, Aaron Johnson, Melora Kuhn, Dennis McNett, Hayley McCulloch, Pop Mortem, Lucia Pedi, Mac Premo, Graham Preston, Christy Rupp, Tom Sanford, Sigrid Sarda, and Madeline Von Foerster.

All photographs by the author.