Apple Stand
Apple Stand was an exhibition by Olivia Rose at BlankMagBooks on the Lower East Side, November 13 to 20, 2025. It presented found ephemera, printed matter, installations, and laser engraved apples, staged as a working fruit stand.
Eighty Red Delicious apples were engraved with New York Post front pages, from the 1963 Kennedy assassination to the November 2025 mayoral election. The apples came from an orchard upstate and were left unsealed, so the fruit changed naturally over the run of the show. Around them, the exhibition collected a century of New York apple material: campaign posters, grocery signage, magazine covers, buttons, postcards, and printed matter. The opening drew about 200 guests and the show was covered by the New York Post.
THE EXHIBITION
THE ZINE
A companion zine, New York, was researched, designed, and written by Olivia Rose and published by BlankMagBooks for the exhibition, issued under The Arboreal Historical Society of New York City. It covers the history of the Big Apple nickname: the 1920s racetrack slang that John J. Fitz Gerald brought into his newspaper column, the Harlem jazz era and the Big Apple dance at the Savoy Ballroom, the Fear City period of the 1970s, and the tourism campaign that revived the name. It also reproduces apple material from the city's past, including Depression-era apple vendors and the colonial orchards that Orchard Street is named for.
FAQ
What was Apple Stand?
An exhibition by Olivia Rose at BlankMagBooks on the Lower East Side, November 13 to 20, 2025. It presented laser engraved apples, found ephemera, printed matter, and installations, staged as a working fruit stand. The show was covered by the New York Post.
What was engraved on the apples?
Eighty Red Delicious apples were engraved with New York Post front pages, from the 1963 Kennedy assassination to the November 2025 mayoral election. The apples were left unsealed and changed naturally over the run of the show.
Was there a publication with the show?
Yes. A zine titled New York, researched, designed, and written by Olivia Rose and published by BlankMagBooks, on the history of the Big Apple nickname, with apple material from the city's past.