Photos by Eli Brosmith

I was in Grandaisy getting my usual party supplies (their Roman-style pizzas, sliced in 16ths, make excellent cocktail party nosh) when owner Monica Von Thun Calderón happened to mention the bakery’s contribution to an art installation at MoMA’s PS1.

Turns out Vaginal Davis, who now has a retrospective at the museum, created her monumental bread sculptures at Grandaisy in 2012, with the help of head baker Julio Guarchaj. For the show up now at PS1, the pair recreated “Timberlake” and “Mariah,” which were originally shown at Participant, the LES gallery, baking them in late September in Tribeca so they could open the show on October 9. (In the shot above, from left to right: Vaginal Davis, Monica Von Thun Calderón, Sheldon Gooch, Jose Segebre, Yaya Diarra and Julio Guarchaj.)

Julio Guarchaj, Jonathan Berger and Vaginal Davis working on Timberlake.

Titled “Magnificent Project,” the show spans five decades of Davis’ practice as a performer, visual artist, author, filmmaker, musician, educator, self-proclaimed “Blacktress” and countercultural icon. “The presentation spotlights Ms. Davis’s role as an underground trailblazer in culture and queer politics — as well as her uncompromising glamour,” the website says. This is the show’s US debut and it includes installations, video, paintings, zines, audio works, sculptures and extensive archival materials, as well as and cross-disciplinary collaborations, including a new installation by the Berlin-based CHEAP Collective with photographs by Annette Frick.

It’s up until March 2026.