Robert Therrien’s Monumental Installations Are Landing in L.A.

“No title (folding table and chairs, dark brown),” 2007. (Photo: Joshua White)

In the 1960s and 70s, conceptual and minimalist art was having a moment. Across the United States, artists like Carl Andre, Jo Baer, Dan Flavin, Eva Hesse, and Sol LeWitt were leaning into intense abstraction, radical simplicity, geometric shapes, and pared-back materials, rejecting convention in favor of a more theoretical approach to art. But, even amid these developments, Robert Therrien veered toward something entirely different. Instead, he opted for monumental sculptures of ordinary objects, ranging from folding chairs and tables to dishes and telephone wires. Such works are now the focus of the late artist’s largest museum exhibition to date, opening at the Broad in Los Angeles on November 22, 2025.

Titled This is a Story, the exhibition offers a sweeping overview of Therrien’s practice, complete with more than 120 pieces that cover five decades of his creative output. Here, guests will encounter a contorted bed clad in black bedsheets, hunched over like a snake; a comical gray beard composed of stainless steel and painted aluminum, suited for an off-kilter Santa Claus costume; and a witch’s hat, its point so sharp as to be threatening. Most engaging, however, are the artist’s enormous installations of dining tables and chairs, including his iconic Under the Table. Rather than being a static object, designed only for observing, the 1994 sculpture prioritizes immersion, inviting viewers to interact with it directly. When poised beneath the wooden table, staring up at its underbelly, an inversion of scale occurs, as if we have tumbled into the topsy-turvy world of Alice in Wonderland.

This sense of play is at the heart of Therrien’s work, which is primarily concerned with perception, dimensionality, and motion. Perhaps nothing embodies this better than Stacked Plates, White from 1993. In this sculpture, a towering stack of white plates appears at the verge of collapse, each dish precariously and haphazardly placed on top of the other. Walking around the stack seems to animate it, as though the plates are rattling in front of our eyes and we can do nothing but witness the impending disaster. In This is a Story, movement is prized above all else, encouraging guests to navigate pieces like one would a treasure map.

“Therrien made important contributions to many of sculpture’s central conversations for over 40 years,” Ed Schad, curator and publications manager at the Broad, remarks. “However, the most important thing to know about Therrien is that he can evoke a sense of wonder.”

Indeed, the inner workings of that “wonder” is on full display in This is a Story. The exhibition encompasses everything from Therrien’s intimate drawings to pieces made just before the artist’s untimely death in 2019, many of which have never before been on public view. The Broad has even created partial reconstructions of Therrien’s studio spaces, featuring his project tables, drawings, and tools. According to the museum, these additions seek to celebrate the artist’s deep connection to the Broad and downtown LA, where he lived and worked.

“Therrien has longstanding ties to the Broad and was one of the very first LA-based artists to enter the Broad collection decades ago, in its first, formative years,” Joanne Heyler, founding director and president of the Broad, explains.

Schad echoes the sentiment, saying, “Los Angeles has been and remains a historically important place to make sculpture and Therrien is vital to that story. What starts in Therrien’s personal closely guarded memories and passions becomes a mysterious place in which a viewer can think about and dwell in one’s own.”

Robert Therrien: This is a Story will be on view at the Broad from November 22, 2025 through April 5, 2026.

The Broad in LA will stage the largest-ever exhibition dedicated to the late artist Robert Therrien, who primarily produced monumental sculptures of everyday objects.