A Moveable Feast: Art, Food and Migration
Food, visible in ancient Egyptian tomb paintings, was meant to be available for the deceased in the afterworld. In ancient Greek and Roman murals, depictions of foodstuffs could reveal a painter’s skill and/or reinforce the wealth and position of the mural owner. Still-life oil paintings, the rage in 17th century Italy and Holland, focused on the realistic depiction of food as well as its metaphoric implications, from the sensuality of still-wet grapes to a reminder of death suggested by worm holes in fruit or a dead rabbit or fowl on the buffet. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the inclusion of food in art was no longer considered a subject matter secondary to history painting or portraiture as it had been until that time. Paintings of apples by French painter Paul Cézanne (d. 1906) refer to classical Greek myths, Adam and Eve, female sensuality and fertility while still functioning as a vehicle for his dramatic new style of post-Impressionist painting. American Pop Art pieces of the 1960s: Andy Warhol’s silkscreen images of soup cans, Claes Oldenburg’s hot dogs and hamburgers sewn with fabric and Wayne Thiebaud’s lusciously layered oil painted desserts pointed to consumerism, street culture and the growing affluence and self-indulgence of Americans where everyday life literally and figuratively became art.
In this exhibition, we have selected paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, mixed media collages, videos and installation works where food and its rituals have an even greater multiplicity of meanings and purposes in our contemporary, globally-aware society. The history of the world is one of migration. When people move or travel, they often “take” their cuisine with them, sometimes dreaming of it as Roberto Márquez implies in his work, Map of Mexico. People adopt flavors, sauces, ingredients, spices and beverages from a new locale or entice the natives to enjoy their transferred cuisine as Bette Blank illustrates in a Madison, NJ, restaurant scene, Sushi Palace. The exhibition, named after a book by Ernest Hemingway, recognizes the allure of other cultures and new experiences, ones that he himself had in France (as visualized by José Pardo), Spain, Cuba and other places which found their way into his writing. This internationalism is reflected in the sophisticated, multi-layered, multi-cultural canvas, Tapas, by José Rodeiro.
Laura L. Cuevas references the expulsion from paradise as the ultimate entwining of eating, the divine and forced “migration.” Thus from birth until death, human beings are preoccupied with sustenance made visible in works by Bob Richardson and Judith Margolis. As Kathleen Migliore-Newton, Jay Seldin and Sue Zwick reveal, fresh food markets, our own version of “paradise,” exist around the world in a variety of settings. Shopping lists are made (Jacquelyn Stryker), recipes collected (Marilyn Walter), and feasts with family and friends are celebrated (Aliza Augustine, Barbara McElheny and Zwick). Raúl Villarreal and Davide Luciano note with irony the problem of abundance and waste even as many in the world have little or nothing to eat. Mario Lupo’s Migration (Porca) alludes to the fact that when the Spanish brought pigs to the New World, this food source inadvertently became agricultural destroyers, ruining Native American fields and crops, causing a problem that still exists in the south today because of descendant wild pigs. Nelson Alvárez and Jane Dell also reference environmental troubles caused by factory manufactured food while Alan Alejo, Barbara Brill, Emily Tumbleson and Alan Walker document our fast food “addictions” to McDonald’s, pizza, take-out Chinese, vending machine snacks and soft-serve ice cream. Coffee, beer, soda and juice boxes appear in works by Linda Stillman, Tracy Miller and Luciano although a bottle of red wine completes the scene in works by Pardo and Larry Ross. Cakes and cookies by Asaya Dodina & Slava Polishchuk, Lori Larusso, and Lupo look scrumptious but watch out for the one by Gabriel Navar which, with all its sugar, may be “eating” you. Adel Gorgy, abstracting imagery of Warhol’s soup cans some fifty years later, reflects the loss of simplicity and signals the distortion and multiplicity of food choices available in the U.S. and around the world. And yet, the contemporary performance on video by Greek artist, Filippos Tsitsopoulos, where his head is covered in fruits, vegetables and other foods, harks back to the work of the 16th century Italian Mannerist painter Arcimboldo, perhaps a contemporary portrait of “you are what you eat!”
Exhibition List: A Moveable Feast: Art, Food and Migration
College of Saint Elizabeth February 11 – May 4, 2014
Alan Alejo
Pie in The Sky
2013
Colored and clear gelatin capsules and oil paint
10 x 10”
Courtesy of the Artist
0
Alan Alejo
Billions and Billions Served
2013
Colored gelatin Capsules
10” x 10”
Courtesy of the Artist
0
Nelson Alvarez
The One and Only (from the Food Pollution Series)
2013
Indian ink, watercolor and collage on illustration board
8 x 10"
Courtesy of the Artist
0
Aliza Augustine
Mizaliza’s Collected Family
2014
Mixed media book
10 x 8 1/2 x 1"
Courtesy of the Artist
,000
Bette Blank
Salami Sandwich
2003
Oil on canvas
24 x 36”
Courtesy of the Artist; NFS
Bette Blank
Sushi Palace II
2006
Oil on linen
30 x 40”
Courtesy of the Artist and Adam Baumgold Gallery, NYC
,000
Barbara Brill
The Party is Over
2012
Digital inkjet print
17 x 22”
Courtesy of the Artist
0
Laura L. Cuevas
Each day had no limits
2010
Mixed media on handmade paper
8 1/2 x 10 1/2”
Courtesy of the Artist
0
Jane Dell
Forbidden Fruit
2012
Acrylic and collage on canvas
20 x 20”
Courtesy of the Artist
,000
Asya Dodina & Slava Polishchuk
The Cake # 1
2009
Graphite on paper
5 x 7”
Courtesy of the Artists
0
Asya Dodina & Slava Polishchuk
The Cake # 3
2009
Graphite on paper
5 x 7”
Courtesy of the Artists
0
Adel Gorgy
My Meeting with Warhol...Traces of Warhol
from the series, Traces of Pollock, de Kooning and Warhol
2013
Archival pigment print
40 x 55”
Courtesy of Able Fine Art Gallery, New York City
00
Lori Larusso
Chocolate Cake (with Sprinkles)
2013
Acrylic and enamel on panel
5 x 7”
Courtesy of the Artist
0
Davide Luciano
Tossed
2013
Digital c-print mounted on Plexiglas (edition of 7)
24 x 36"
Courtesy of the Artist
,500
Maria Lupo
Cookie Exchange
2012
Mixed media and clay installation
Courtesy of the Artist
5
Maria Lupo
Migration (Porca)
2012
Mixed media on canvas
40 x 38”
Courtesy of the Artist
5
Judith Margolis
Carrie’s Recepie or Dad Feeding Mom
2014
Mixed media collage, gouache, pencil, ink on Arches watercolor paper
24 x 17”
Courtesy of the Artist
00
Roberto Márquez
El Mapa de México
2013
Encaustic and oil on wood
13 x 8 x 3"
Courtesy of the Artist
,000
Barbara McElheny
Il pasto che ci muove
2013
Oil on canvas
20 x 20"
Courtesy of the Artist
0
Tracy Miller
Undone
2007-2010
Oil on canvas
20 x 20”
Courtesy of the Artist and Feature Inc., New York
,000
Gabriel Navar
App 2 have & eat cake
2012
Acrylic, pencils, ink and oil on paper
24 x 18”
Courtesy of the Artist
,200
Kathleen Migliore-Newton
Saturday Market
2010
Oil on linen
52 x 40"
Courtesy of the Artist
,000
Jose Pardo
Une Fête Mobile
2013
Oil on canvas
14 x 11”
Courtesy of the Artist
00
Bob Richardson
Formula
2013
Mixed media
54 x 40 x 40"
Courtesy of the Artist
,000
José Rodeiro
Tapas
1998
Oil on canvas
53 x 48”
Courtesy of the Artist
,000
Larry Ross
Automated Still Life
2011
Pen, ink and watercolors on paper
24 x 20”
Courtesy of the Artist
0
Jay Seldin
Morning Market, Kashmir, India
2010
Black and white and color digital print
24 x 28”
Courtesy of the Artist
0
Linda Stillman
Jitters
2014
Mixed media: used coffee filters, acrylic medium, plastic juice caps
Dimensions: variable (wall installation)
Courtesy of the Artist
,000
Jacquelyn Strycker
Grocery Lists (1)
2013
Screenprint
8 x 5”
Courtesy of the Artist
Jacquelyn Strycker
Grocery Lists (2)
2013
Screenprint
8 x 5”
Courtesy of the Artist
Tsitsopoulos Filippos
Feldeinsamkeit Tonight
2010
Video 38 min, loop
Actor: Filippos Tsitsopoulos
Performed, filmed and edited by Filippos Tsitsopoulos
Quick time Master HD, transferred to DVD and Blue Ray
Courtesy of the Artist
,000
Emily Tumblesson
Cherry Tre
2013
Digital video
Courtesy of the Artist
Raúl Villarreal
La crisis de la abundancia (The Crisis of Abundance)
2012
Oil on linen
48 x 60”
Courtesy of the Artist
,000
Alan Walker
More on the Way
2012
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 40”
Courtesy of the Artist
,900
Marilyn Walter
Lost In Translation
2013
Plexiglas, acetate sheets, plastic rods and threading
10 x 10 x 10”
Courtesy of the Artist
0
Sue Zwick
Yangon, Myanmar
2012
Archival inkjet print (digital photograph)
14 x 18”
Courtesy of the Artist
5
Sue Zwick
Kashgar, China
2007
Archival inkjet print (digital photograph)
14 x 18”
Courtesy of the Artist
5
Sue Zwick
Bukhara, Uzbekistan
2007
Archival Inkjet print (digital photograph)
14 x 11”
Courtesy of the Artist
0
No artwork found in exhibition gallery found.