Table tennis has moved into the loftiest realms of high art. Last fall, New York’s Friedman Benda showed a snazzy Ron Arad-designed Ping-Pong table, while at Arte Fiera in Bologna, Milan’s BND Contemporary Art Vision featured an installation of tables plastered with images of art celebs’ mugs, so that players could pound balls at Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Andy Warhol, all courtesy of the Russian pranksters the Blue Noses. But the capper came at Tim Nye’s Nyehaus gallery. In January, the New York-based collector debuted Untitled (The Future Will Be Chrome), 2008, a mirror, aluminum and glass table designed by Rirkrit Tiravanija and produced by outdoor-object commissioner Cumulus Studios. Nye invited table-tennis pros and others, including Susan Sarandon, to try it out. What’s next — mini-golf at the Palazzo Grassi?

"Table Talk" originally appeared in the April 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's April 2009 Table of Contents.