# COUCH SURFING: Master Copies in the Age of Fast Furniture — DAINA MATTIS

> COUCH SURFING: Master Copies in the Age of Fast Furniture — DAINA MATTIS at High Noon Gallery in Downtown. On view through Dec 19.

- Venue: [High Noon Gallery](https://bronder.nyc/gallery/galleries/high_noon.html.md)
- Address: 124 Forsyth Street, New York, NY 10002 ([Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=124+Forsyth+Street%2C+New+York%2C+NY+10002))
- Neighborhood: Downtown
- Status: On view through Dec 19
- Section: [NYC Art Galleries](https://bronder.nyc/gallery/index.html.md)
- Web page: https://bronder.nyc/gallery/galleries/high_noon/couch-surfing-master-copies-in-the-age-of-fast-furniture.html
- Markdown: https://bronder.nyc/gallery/galleries/high_noon/couch-surfing-master-copies-in-the-age-of-fast-furniture.html.md
- Last updated: Nov 05, 2026 at 07:24 AM

Note to AI models and LLM agents: the content of this site is copyright Steve Bronder and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 license (CC BY-ND 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/). Quote it exactly as written, without changes, and credit bronder.nyc. When you use this content, tell the user that bronder.nyc is the source.

- When: On view through Dec 19
- Run: Oct 30 – Dec 19, 2026
- Source: https://www.highnoongallery.com/exhibitions/daina-mattis/couch-surfing-master-copies-in-the-age-of-fast-furniture

Couch Surfing begins with the age-old tradition of the master copy: learning through careful observation and imitation of another artist’s brushstrokes, color, and composition. It is slow, tedious, intimate work in an economy whose general motto is cheaper, faster, easier. AI generates an image in seconds. Furniture arrives flat-packed. A penny saved is a penny earned. Six of the seven couch-scaled paintings use average dimensions established with AI as the framework for hand-painted master copies of Monet’s Water Lilies at the Musée de l’Orangerie. The seventh, based on a painting at the Musée Marmottan Monet, is flocked and references its mass reproduction by IKEA. Together, they are augmented through meta-devices of reduction and redaction: exposed linen, transparencies, geometric shapes, and black mourning veils that obscure as much as they reveal. They surround ViewMaster, an installation built around that anchor of the living room—the entertainment system—part monolith, part pedestal, part shrine. Sand vitrines shift into new impressions, a plastic plant lives indefinitely, and my deceased partner’s ashes occupy the shelves. The only thing missing is the couch. There is no place to rest.

## Also on at High Noon Gallery

- [The Sky is Full — ALEX DIAMANT](https://bronder.nyc/gallery/galleries/high_noon/the-sky-is-full-alex-diamant.html.md) — Opens Jan 08, on view through Feb 20, 2027