THERE IS A PLACE
Wrong, a store that’s so very right. In Marfa, Texas
It is so rare to go to a truly original design shop. One where you don’t see the same quirky, somewhat useful object you have seen somewhere else in a different color. And it is so hard to be original lately.
Well, I found a place! I recently visited Marfa, Texas and found a shop deliciously called Wrong, on the main street. It’s truly original. Curated and run by Buck Johnston, she and her husband Camp Bosworth created Wrong to show his handmade and painted bass wood pieces — often these works refer to drug cartels and the drug trade, such as humorous stacks of (wooden) cash, bags of coke or little cigarettes — and soon started carrying other artists’ work they knew.
In the beginning, the store only carried made in Marfa things. Now they represent 50 to 60 makers and most of the artists have some sort of loose Marfa connection. In 2019 they moved the shop out of the adobe church they bought 21 years ago, to a lofty space in the middle of Highland Avenue, Marfa’s main strip. Big red letters spell out Wrong in a ye olde Western saloon typeface on the historic white building. You can’t miss it.
The floor is hot pink, the walls bright white, colorful chandeliers hang and a giant asterisks-shaped table is carefully curated with all sorts of enticing and clever things. This place encourages lingering, discovering and above all enjoying. Have some fun! Sensuous ceramic dining pieces, clever barware, mesquite cutting boards, photographic works, and coffee table books such as Prick by Gynelle Leon, Finding Mezcal by Ron Cooper and Crackpot by John Waters.
Favorites include big, screen-printed pieces by Jason Archer who makes Marfa Mashups — a photo of James Dean parked in front of a Donald Judd concrete piece, a film still of Rock Hudson in Giant, unaware of the flying saucer hovering above him. By the cash register is a bowl of darling pine hearts by Bosworth and another of Mexican bracelets — the couple spends every January in Mexico and a Seri woman, native to the Sea of Cortez, makes the bracelets for them. Everything they choose to bring into the store they love and tells a story. It’s personal, and the shop seems to be as much for their own enjoyment as to delight their visitors.
Some may not totally get it. Recently an out-of-towner asked, why does it say “wrong” on everything? and Buck hollered with a laugh: “Because you are in the Wrong store!”
Camp thought of the shop name, and Buck adds, “Wrong frees us up to do anything we want; it’s funky and fun. It’s hysterical and everyone remembers us. We’re fucking laughing our asses off over here — we just think about shit and crack up!”
When you visit, Buck might be behind the cash register and above her a sign reads, “We ship every fucking day.” In case you were about to ask.
Be sure to grab one of Camp’s bundle of drug money — $100 for $10,000 of wooden bills! Now that is a deal.
Here’s their site: http://www.wrongmarfa.com
