Times Square Space presented HARDCORE COTTAGECORE, a solo exhibition by Tom Bull that emerged from a month-long residency at Maison Monna, a recently opened creative guesthouse and cultural space in Old Chatham, New York. Developed during the residency, the exhibition brought together paintings, sculptures and video works shaped by Bull’s longstanding interest in Shaker design and its emphasis on utility, craftsmanship and communal life.

Presented during Frieze New York, the exhibition continued Bull’s investigation into the uneasy relationship between urban and rural cultures. Growing up in England’s rural Midlands, he became acutely aware of the gap between the realities of country life and the versions of it marketed to city dwellers. Since 2021, this interest has found expression through forms associated with “cottagecore”, the contemporary aesthetic that packages ideas of simplicity, self-sufficiency and retreat into a consumable lifestyle.

The choice of Times Square as a venue brought these concerns into sharp focus. Founded in 2016, Times Square Space activates vacant office and retail spaces through a programme of artist residencies and exhibitions, creating temporary platforms for contemporary artistic production within one of New York’s most visible urban environments. 

Against a backdrop of advertising, tourism and constant circulation, Bull’s works returned repeatedly to objects associated with the home, particularly seating and heating. Familiar and functional, these forms became vehicles through which broader questions of belonging, aspiration and cultural identity could be considered without sentimentality or critique.

Tom Bull, HARDCORE COTTAGECORE
Times Square Space, New York
1500 Broadway, New York 10036
14 May – 24 May 2026