Debuting Friday, April 27, 2012 through August 2012, Royal/T will present unique ‘food for thought,’ with “The Art of Cooking,” a new food-and art-themed exhibit. The show is curated by Hanne Mugaas who holds many years of art expertise, including her notable work at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and the Moving Image Archive of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MIACA), alongside founding the gallery, Art Since the Summer of ’69 on the Lower East Side in Manhattan in 2008. Her passion for “The Art of Cooking” stems from her personal background—coming from a family of restaurateurs and gourmet chefs—and as Mugaas elaborates, “’The Art of Cooking’ is a show that everybody can relate to since food is a central theme and source of everyday pleasure.”
Intended to induce “the pleasures of the table”, the exhibition The Art of Cooking showcases artists who are making use of food in their work – as obsession, exploration or celebration – and often with a big dash of humor. The works included span different media, from drawing and painting to digital prints and clothing. Takeshi Murata updates the traditional still life to digital 3D prints of empty beer cans and fast food cups. Viktor Kopp’s focus is on chocolate bars, which he continuously paints, experimenting with the rigid geometry of the grid. Amy Yao shows clothing ornamented with hot dogs and bananas, from a collection based on the chance encounter of a sewing machine and a banana on a kitchen table. Josh Blackwell embroiders throwaway grocery plastic bags into precious objects. Scott Reeder makes abstract paintings using raw and cooked spaghetti, playing with the macho, academic nature of that media– and Kenny Scharf paints donuts humorously floating in surreal skies.
With this show, the curator Hanne Mugaas (who is from a family of restaurateurs and gourmet chefs) says “Food has always been present in art. With this show I wanted to focus on contemporary artists who represent food in interesting but also humorous ways – as food is (for most of us) linked to pleasure, not only when it comes to taste but also social interaction. This exhibition is meant to celebrate food – no matter if it is a gourmet meal, a donut, or a slice of toast with marmalade”.
Events:
Performances at the opening include The Egg Fugue by Scott and Tyson Reeder, and Fantasy Sandwich by Charles Irvin.
DJs at the opening: Wendy Yao and DJ Burger King.
Performance during the summer by Sara Rara of Lucky Dragons.
The day is coming when a single carrot freshly observed will set off a revolution. -Paul Cezanne
