Alan Wolfson is obviously a guy who pays attention to what’s around him. From the colour of a sign down to the chewing gum on the pavement, the level of detail in his miniature urban sculptures is truly mind-boggling.
Commissioned by a nostalgic ex-New Yorker who wanted something more concrete to add to his childhood memories of his favourite Manhattan eatery, the sculpture of Katz’s Deli is the result of many painstaking and we dare say damn fiddly hours work. The store itself has been going since 1888, and some of the signage looks like it hasn’t changed in all that time, but it’s all the better for it – a real blast from the past. In fact Wolfson chose to date the work to the 1970s, and used posters from bands of the era to form a montage on the exterior wall.
Wolfson doesn’t use people in his sculptures, so to recreate the vibrant, bustling nature of the deli he devised a scene set just after closing time, with all the aftermath yet to be cleared away. A very tasty little morsel indeed. You can sample a previous piece of Wolfson’s bitesized brilliance with his Canal St Cross Section.
