By ESME GRAHAM, November 6, 2026
Visiting Heartbreak Bar—Sam Anderson’s solo exhibition at Derosia—in the evening feels like an immersive experience. The second-floor gallery peers out onto Grand Street, and the noises of rush-hour traffic and after-work chatter outside can be heard over the dim buzzing of the lights inside. This ambience contributes to the feeling that the visitor has been transported into a bar that, long-forgotten, has simply continued operating. In the main gallery, three long pedestals stretch across the room, displaying small scenes rendered in plaster, wood, resin, acrylic, and other materials. The mysterious—potentially ominous—bright green drinks, soft red and blue lighting, and painted bars contrast the monochrome human figures, which, made from plaster, are all ghostly white. Indeed, like apparitions, they seem tethered to their designated spaces, destined to lurk behind bars or sit at lonely tables. The word "haunt" takes on a double meaning in Heartbreak Bar, as the gallery transforms into an oft-frequented locale populated by spectral figures.
Anderson’s figures are simultaneously vague and specific. Their facial features and plaster bodies are blurre...