The Broad Museum in Los Angeles is set to open its most ambitious exhibition to date dedicated to the late sculptor Robert Therrien, showcasing more than 120 works spanning five decades of the artist's groundbreaking career. "Robert Therrien: This is a Story" opens November 22, 2025, and runs through April 5, 2026, offering visitors an unprecedented look at the artist's monumental sculptures of ordinary objects that challenged conventional art movements of his time.
Therrien carved out a unique artistic path during the 1960s and 1970s, a period when conceptual and minimalist art dominated the American art scene. While contemporaries like Carl Andre, Jo Baer, Dan Flavin, Eva Hesse, and Sol LeWitt embraced intense abstraction, radical simplicity, and geometric forms, Therrien chose a dramatically different approach. Instead of following the minimalist trend toward pared-back materials and theoretical concepts, he created oversized sculptures of familiar household items including folding chairs, dining tables, dishes, and telephone wires.
The exhibition's centerpiece is Therrien's iconic 1994 sculpture "Under the Table," which transforms the traditional viewing experience into an immersive encounter. Rather than serving as a static object for observation, the massive wooden table invites visitors to walk beneath it and look up at its underbelly. This perspective shift creates an Alice in Wonderland-like experience where viewers feel as though they've shrunk in scale, fundamentally altering their relationship with the familiar object and challenging perceptions of space and dimensionality.
Among the exhibition's most striking pieces is "Stacked Plates, White" from 1993, a towering sculpture that appears perpetually on the verge of collapse. Each white plate sits precariously atop the others in a seemingly haphazard arrangement that creates tension and movement even in stillness. As visitors circle the installation, the plates appear to rattle and shift before their eyes, creating an anticipation of disaster that never comes. This dynamic quality exemplifies Therrien's mastery of perception and motion in sculptural form.
The exhibition also features more whimsical and surreal works that demonstrate the artist's playful approach to everyday objects. A contorted bed draped in black sheets hunches over like a serpent, while a massive gray beard made of stainless steel and painted aluminum suggests an off-kilter Santa Claus costume. A witch's hat with a menacingly sharp point adds an element of fantasy and slight threat to the collection. These pieces reveal Therrien's ability to transform the mundane into the magical while maintaining a sense of underlying unease.
"Therrien made important contributions to many of sculpture's central conversations for over 40 years," explains Ed Schad, curator and publications manager at the Broad. "However, the most important thing to know about Therrien is that he can evoke a sense of wonder." This sense of wonder permeates every aspect of the exhibition, which prioritizes movement and exploration over static contemplation. Visitors are encouraged to navigate the pieces like explorers following a treasure map, discovering new perspectives and relationships with each viewing angle.
The comprehensive exhibition encompasses the full breadth of Therrien's artistic output, from intimate drawings to large-scale installations. Many pieces have never been displayed publicly before, including works created just before the artist's untimely death in 2019. The Broad has gone beyond simply displaying finished works by creating partial reconstructions of Therrien's studio spaces, complete with his project tables, drawings, and tools. These intimate glimpses into his creative process celebrate his deep connection to the Broad and downtown Los Angeles, where he lived and worked throughout much of his career.
"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," notes Joanne Heyler, founding director and president of the Broad. This local connection adds special significance to the exhibition's Los Angeles venue. Schad reinforces this sentiment, stating, "Los Angeles has been and remains a historically important place to make sculpture and Therrien is vital to that story."
The exhibition's title, "This is a Story," reflects the narrative quality inherent in Therrien's work and the personal journey each viewer experiences when encountering his sculptures. As Schad observes, "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." This transformation from personal to universal experience lies at the heart of Therrien's artistic achievement and his lasting impact on contemporary sculpture.
Visitors to "Robert Therrien: This is a Story" will have the opportunity to experience the largest museum exhibition ever dedicated to the artist's work, providing a definitive overview of his contributions to contemporary art. The exhibition runs at the Broad Museum through April 5, 2026, offering an extended opportunity for art enthusiasts to explore the fascinating world of enlarged everyday objects that challenged artistic conventions and continue to inspire wonder in viewers decades after their creation.
