The Cream of the Art Fair Crop
Food-art gems at a fair with no actual food, plus highlights from sister fairs Felix and Spring/Break Art Show
Welcome to the latest issue of Weekly Special, a food-art newsletter by Andrea Gyorody.
Hello, friends old and new!
The world is in a very sorry state right now, from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the rash of anti-gay and -trans legislation in the US. I hope this food-art missive can serve as a healthy distraction from the fact that we might be on the precipice of WWIII and/or Handmaid’s Tale-level conservatism. You can further distract yourself by cooking up a big pot of solidarity borscht; reading about the cultural history of Ukraine’s national dish in the New Yorker (h/t Wordloaf); and/or donating to the indefatigable World Central Kitchen, which is feeding people on the ground at the Ukrainian-Polish border.
In non-geopolitical news, life has been nuts and I’m still working on my Wayne Thiebaud tribute. In the meantime, though, I’ve put together two other issues of Weekly Special celebrating the fabulous food-art I’ve seen lately.
Today, I offer a luxe tasting menu based on my top ten food-art finds from the three fairs that conspired to make LA traffic even worse than normal last week: Frieze LA, the fanciest of the three, sited in a giant tent next to the Beverly Hilton Hotel, with perhaps the most abominable parking situation known to man (as in, there was no parking and I had to bug my poor husband to play chauffeur); Felix Art Fair, staged partly poolside at the hip Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, with a dearth of street parking that nearly caused me to give up and go home; and Spring/Break Art Show, the scrappiest of the fairs, mercifully spread across an airy warehouse in Culver City with reasonable valet, proving you can be punk rock and provide proper amenities.
Now that you’ve been briefed on my (very LA) parking grievances… let’s dig in!
1. Erin Wright ⟡ Holy Crap ⟡ Spring/Break
Erin Wright makes exquisite paintings, three of which hung at Spring/Break Art Show in the silver-paper-lined booth “Holy Crap,” curated by Patrick Geske and Cody Minor. The background in the painting above looks digitally printed, but it’s been painstakingly drawn and smudged by hand, mimicking low-res wallpaper that contrasts with Wright’s meticulously precise leaves and hyperrealistic fruit under a sweaty cloche.
Lest you think the food is incidental in Wright’s work, here’s another from “Holy Crap,” this time featuring a pink jelly cake by LA dessert-maker @eatnunchi.
In conclusion: I want that cake, that dog, and that backsplash. But I’d also settle for hanging this up in my kitchen so I can project my tired self into this calm, color-coordinated space as a form of self-care. (Alas, it sold before I arrived. Will light some candles and order a jelly cake instead.)
2. Thania Petersen ⟡ Nicodim Gallery ⟡ Felix
WOWZA. Where does one even begin?! First things first: this sh*t is embroidered. I can barely mend a loose button, so having the skill to execute a food court dreamscape (based on Cape Town’s bustling Canal Walk mall) is completely beyond my imagination. Thania Petersen, folks. One to watch.
3 . Kathleen Ryan ⟡ François Ghebaly ⟡ Frieze
I’ve been stalking Kathleen Ryan’s work from afar for a while now, and this was my first time seeing it in all its IRL glory. François Ghebaly’s booth at Frieze included two of Ryan’s gem-encrusted sculptures of rotting fruit — a small-ish moldy lemon, seen above, and a much larger grouping of withering grapes and a lemon slice, resting on a plinth. Mold has never been so tempting (tubs of Sqirl jam notwithstanding).
4. Sula Bermúdez-Silverman ⟡ Josh Lilley ⟡ Felix
When I turned the corner into Josh Lilley’s cabana bathroom, I nearly gasped. There, wedged improbably into the shower, was a sugar house by Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, whose work I had only encountered on my iPhone screen, a most unsatisfying vehicle for sculpture with such incredible presence. This dollhouse, like many of Bermúdez-Silverman’s sculptures, is made in large part from isomalt sugar, a material she uses for its evocative transparency and for its inextricable relationship with colonialism and enslavement — and all of the haunted, hallowed spaces such violence has left in its wake.
5. Mike Chattem ⟡ Hot Spring ⟡ Spring/Break
No photo could convey the bonanza of texture and saturated color and very trippy imagery in this sculptural relief, titled Data Harem, by Mike Chattem. Normally I’ve got a dramatic eyebrow raise for anyone who curates themselves into a show, but this celebration of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, lobsters, and corn — which magically come together to form a face/creature waving at us — anchored a delightfully weird booth complete with lavender shag carpet and ombré walls. I’m left with no choice but to bracket the skepticism and admire the vision.
6. Lars Fisk ⟡ Broadway ⟡ Felix
When you’re looking for food-art, you see food everywhere, even, perhaps, where it is not. Nevertheless, I stand by my snap judgement that these pink marble forms by Lars Fisk are elegant sausages, and I love the little moment in back where the links are hugging. Please don’t try to tell me that’s not what’s happening here. I will not be dissuaded.
7. Charles Ly ⟡ Harper’s ⟡ Felix
Hung in a narrow hallway in the Harper’s suite at Felix, this painting of spring rolls at sea by Charles Ly acted, for me at least, as a gateway drug to his body of work. Ly’s recent paintings (on view right now at Harper’s New York!) are a veritable parade of dreamy Vietnamese foods, from bánh mì to congee, and a tender homage to the women who make them.
8. Catherine Wagner ⟡ Jessica Silverman ⟡ Frieze
Catherine Wagner’s photos from the 1990s were like nothing else I saw at Frieze. This one transported me into a twee cartoon universe, where the fridge is stocked exclusively with cheese products and everything looks like it’s made of Sculpey. Sure enough, a little sleuthing dredged up the work’s original title: The Architecture of Reassurance: Minnie Mouse’s Kitchen; Mickey’s Toontown, Disneyland, Anaheim, CA. It’s a heavy title for a photo of Minnie’s kitchen, but the whole series — like much of Wagner’s conceptual work — is really about the mythologies that underlie modern America. By design, it’s equal parts charming and unnerving.
9. Nancy Rivera + Jacob Haupt ⟡ Remember You Will Die ⟡ Spring/Break
The pairing of Nancy Rivera’s still lifes with Jacob Haupt’s horror flick portraits was INSPIRED. The booth was called Remember You Will Die, a literal translation of memento mori, the centuries-old still life tradition that features objects — skulls, clocks, fruit, flowers — that serve to remind the viewer of their inexorable mortality. Sounds bleak, but the work was a delight, with Rivera’s tantalizing fruit revealing itself to be pure plasticky artifice, and Haupt’s creepy portraits endearing me with their deadpan repurposing of household items. We’re all gonna die, sure, but at least we can have some fun in the meantime.
10. Saj Issa ⟡ Residency ⟡ Felix
In format and even a little bit in content, Saj Issa’s Lee’s Market & Liturgy bears some resemblance to the work of Moroccan photographer Hassan Hajjaj, who often surrounds his vibrant portraits with shelves of foodstuffs. But a quick peep on Issa’s Instagram makes it obvious that her practice is much more process oriented; her paintings are finely detailed, with enlarged, collaged receipts forming the bodies of her corner store subjects, while the ceramic tiles that frame her paintings are not found objects, as I had assumed, but rather silkscreened and hand-painted by Issa herself. And those receipts that come together to form the ghostly figure behind the counter? They record an early evening purchase of Cheetos and Ben & Jerry’s. Issa is my kinda girl.
⟣ Honorable Mentions ⟢
Tom Sachs ~ outta-this-world mobile mezcal bar
Nikki Maloof ~ PATTERN and a loaf o’ challah
Wendy Park ~ spicy ramen and Coors
Tony Matelli ~ sub sandwich meets ancient sculpture
Kristof Santy ~ cute fridge, cute cat
Pedro Pedro ~ citrus season!!!
Hugh Hayden ~ eggs in a basket(ball hoop)
For Further Eating
If you’ve been to an art fair, you know there’s no time to eat and no food worth eating. (I did once have a pretty decent bagel-and-schmear at Frieze New York, but that felt like a serious anomaly.) Felix LA did have poolside dining options, but I squeezed in a visit with precious little time, so an overpriced salad was not in the cards. I’m not going to leave you peckish, though, because these gorgeous edible jade jewels just dropped!
A collaboration between Peruvian-Chinese resto Chifa (run by Opening Ceremony co-founder Humberto Leon and his family) and artist-jeweler Maayan Zilberman, the collection includes peach and lychee flavored bangles, pendants, and rings mounted on gold vermeil. Read more about the collab in W Mag, and go snag yourself some candy bling before it sells out.
Thank you for reading!
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You’re the best. See you again soon!
I figured as much ;) one of my closest friend just made a special trip to see that show! (oh and probably to escape this brutal endless winter)
Your words are akin to exactly what I have been writing/considering this morning too ~ oh and a small batch of blueberry muffins.
Art and food are always my solace for the soul, especially when world is so dreary weary.
Oh, and if you don’t know the work of Lucy Sparrow @sewyoursoul , check her out!!