Piggy Bank Object Show
YOWIE Hotel
226 South Street
Philadelphia
April 5 and 6, 2025
Before economic forecasts started reading heavy rain, a Philly art gallery put out a call to increase domestic manufacturing of a related good: Piggy banks.
YOWIE, a boutique hotel and studio in South Philadelphia, prompted artists to interpret “the humble piggy bank” this spring for the second year of their so-called “annual object show.” Countless people packed YOWIE’s storefront throughout the two-night market to browse 99 creative piggies set for coin-gutted slaughter.
The exhibition was well-timed amid volatile tariff talks and increasing risk of recession. As Vice President Vance pledged on camera that “America is done being the piggy bank of the entire world,” yuppies took momentary refuge from the news to ponder ceramic purchases between South Street smoke breaks and cocktail sips.
The submissions were surprisingly random considering the obvious thematic potential. I noticed a family of possums; a rotten cantaloupe; a turtle.
A tiny creuset bank going for $222 at least implied an imaginary plot line: A kitchen connoisseur would have to save up about that same amount in order to one day buy a real-deal, full-sized dutch oven.
Other artists went tame with conceptual puns; I spotted at least two miniature couches with pennies poking out of dime-sized cushions. Another person simply fashioned rolls of quarters and nickels papered with custom type, titled the project “Change from the Kitchen Table” and charged $217.50 for the bit.
A kilned clay can of Bud Light struck me as a more capable and comedic change collector. It made me consider adopting a keg as a symbolically higher-status banking system.
Rose Luardo’s aptly named “CyberPig,” a chunky Tesla Cybertruck ostensibly made out of sharpie and papier-mache, was the most clever and overtly relevant work on the gallery’s shelves.
Two other designs were perhaps the most resonant for viewers who arrived at the show clutching their pocketbooks: A wishing well equipped with a bucket to search for loose change on its floor and a slotted pearl protected by open oyster shell.
