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MoMA is opening a grocery store where absolutely nothing is edible—and that’s the point.
Launching on January 6, 2026, MoMA Mart is a limited-time pop-up from the MoMA Design Store that turns the mundane task of grocery shopping into a visual prank. Shelves are stocked not with snacks, but with objects that look like food at first glance and then reveal themselves as lamps, clocks, candles, stools and sculptural décor.
Rather than mimicking an actual market, MoMA Mart plays with the idea of one. Everyday food forms like tomatoes, sandwiches and pizza slices are transformed into design objects that are both absurd and strangely refined. Among the highlights are a tomato-shaped table lamp, pizza and sandwich clocks, produce-like vases and candles that could easily pass for something you’d find in a well-lit specialty shop. Many of the items are exclusive to MoMA and all lean hard into trompe-l’œil.
The pop-up is inspired by a long-standing fascination with food as form, especially within modern and contemporary art. From early 20th-century experiments to Pop Art’s embrace of mass consumption, artists have repeatedly returned to food as a way to talk about culture, desire and everyday life. MoMA Mart nods to that history, especially to figures like Claes Oldenburg and Ed Ruscha, without turning the space into a lecture. The references are there if you want them, but the experience works just as well if you simply want to browse and laugh.
“Food has always been a powerful cultural force, and designers are embracing it in fresh, imaginative ways,” said Emmanuel Plat, director of merchandising at the museum, in an official statement. “MoMA Mart brings that creativity to life while drawing a line back to MoMA’s own history of collecting faux-food objects that blur the boundaries between art, humor and daily experience.”
MoMA Mart will run from January 6 through March 29 at both MoMA Design Store locations—SoHo (81 Spring Street) and Midtown (44 West 53rd Street)—and will also be featured online, where people will be able to shop for the various items. As with all MoMA Design Store purchases, proceeds support the museum and its programming.
Consider it grocery shopping for people who already have snacks—and could use a tomato lamp instead.