The Art of Food at Oklahoma Contemporary

The Art of Food: From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation is the most recent addition to Oklahoma Contemporary’s Eleanor Kirkpatrick Main Gallery. 

The exhibit blends more than 100 artworks by well-known contemporary artists into a single presentation of food-focused euphoria. Ranging in mediums from painting to sculpture, photography and more, the exhibit showcases the place food plays in our everyday lives. 

Artworks by Katherine Ace, Damien Hirst, Chris Antemann and more are included in the exhibit, allowing Oklahomans to question why we eat the things we do, as well as how the customs surrounding our eating patterns affect not only ourselves but those around us. 

Untitled (Bar Scene) and Untitled (Man and a Woman in a Bar) artworks by Andy Warhol.

Many may assume the notorious Campbell’s Soup Cans would be the perfect addition to this exhibit; however, the included watercolor works by Andy Warhol are much different from the pop-art style for which he would later become famous. The free-flowing images depict what appears to be a bar environment, and a man or woman, lonely, drinking their sorrows away. The watercolor artworks were created just two years after Warhol completed high school and two years prior to his move to New York City, perhaps providing a glimpse into his emotions during this transitional period in Pittsburgh. 

C-Ration by Lorna Simpson depicts an empty white plate contrasted by a deep black background with the words, “Not Good Enough,” centered and opposed by an adjoined image of what appears to be a Black woman in a gown familiar to the American South, with the words, “But Good Enough to Serve,” displayed. The work prompts us to question the traditional practices of dinner placements in the world and why a woman may be seen as fit to prepare a meal that she is not seen as fit to consume herself.

C-Ration by Lorna Simpson

Overall, The Art of Food allows guests to explore the relationship between humans and the nourishment which keeps us living, while providing context to the ways food influences our interactions. 

You can learn more about The Art of Food: From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation and view a complete list of included artists at oklahomacontemporary.org/exhibitions/current/the-art-of-food.