In a world of many marketplaces, we must buy and sell goods, negotiate values and services, and exchange our labor for money. These economic activities are deeply social: They form the basis of daily interactions. They shape communities and fuel desires. The museum is a kind of marketplace too, where visitors purchase tickets or memberships to experience the art on view. Artists are also connected to a global marketplace. Their livelihoods can depend on the supply and demand of materials and the sale of artworks as commodities.

The works in this gallery reflect the many ways artists exercise their agency as producers, consumers, and observers, as they engage with the terms and activities of the market economy. Some artists give us enticing pictures of desirable things, such as sumptuous fruits and flowers, household objects, and rare artifacts. Others present more nuanced or critical viewpoints, questioning the ubiquity of mass market commodities or potential effects of a market free of government regulations. For this gallery, the museum curators have drawn from the collection to illustrate a range of such perspectives—from playful gestures to more analytical ones—to prompt conversations about our participation in market economies and the societies they create.