🍌 Museum of Emily: CJ Hendry's Bargain Bodega

Your Home Should be a Museum of Yourself

so I'm making it one.


Thanks for finding this page from the QR code hung up in my kitchen, or, from wandering around the internet. If you aren't in my kitchen reading this, here's some context: I have a QR code hung up by my kitchen wall of CJ's Bargain Bodega Art (🔗) as part of my own project to make my home more like a museum of me.


CJ Hendry (🔗) is one of my favorite artists – she's incredibly talented, funny, full of DGAF energy, and surrounds herself with family and friends all just as serious about her mission: to be very unserious. She take's a MSCHF (🔗) approach to a lot of her art concepts, and is endearingly unapologetic in her approach. Her militant attention to detail paired with her ability to pivot on a dime when absolutely necessary is something I love, admire, and get a lot of laughs from.


I've long dreamt about working with her + her "band of misfits" team, and I'm sure we will someday (a very Emily-type of mission statement), but until then I remain in awe + obsessed with the art drops, installations, and doggedly following along on the adventures they have all over the world, and have acquired a few of her pieces from various drops now and feel good about that. ❤️


And now, for the museum-type of explanation you came for:
—
“Bargain Bodega”
C. J. Hendry / 2024
In 2024, artist CJ Hendry reimagined the everyday bodega as a shimmering
pop-up art installation in New York. Walls, coolers, and everyday consumer
items were draped in sequins—turning the mundane into something magical,
interactive, and ironically luxurious. The piece encourages us to question
how we assign value to familiar objects.

Background & Significance
In Bargain Bodega (2024), CJ Hendry (a self-taught Australian
artist known for her hyper-realistic ink “scribbling” drawings of luxury
items) embodies irony and consumer critique. By transforming everyday
convenience store imagery into glittering, collectible art, she highlights
how context and presentation can redefine perceived value. The installation
was both immersive and transactional, prompting reflection on consumption,
material culture, and the theatricality of commerce.

About the Artist
Born 1988 in South Africa and raised in Brisbane, Australia, Hendry pursued
architecture and finance before dedicating herself fully to art in 2013.
Through social media, her hyper-realistic scribble technique and dramatic
subject matter captured global attention—and led to her relocation to New York
in 2015. With Bargain Bodega, Hendry explores new modes of engagement,
blending sculptural installation, branding, and retail into a singularly
immersive art experience.