99 Cent Store 

Dan Graziano’s ‘99 Cent Store’ is an oil painting that presents us with a very contemporary scene. The work presents the viewer with a typical commercial landscape in the USA and prompts questions about economic structures. How might a store like this, and its advertising, be important to the local community? Consider its institutional position in relation to big brands or exclusive department stores. The inclusion of an ATM is a very pointed detail. Painted with a deliberately casual touch, the image is an intriguing record of the everyday. What does it tell us about American culture, then and now? Historians might research local economic conditions and planning regulations to learn more about how a scene like this comes to exist. The meaning of a work like this is always contingent on its social context.