Sherrie Wolf in The Art of Food

In its most everyday sense, food is a physical necessity, yet its overall significance goes far beyond sustenance. Food is integral to our communities, relationships, cultures, and languages. People interact with food on varying levels. Some of us grow or gather it; more of us buy it. We transform it by cutting, cooking, and dressing it with spices, marinades, and garnishes. We use food as an intermediary to connect with others through holiday meals, business lunches, dates, and more.

Our food choices also carry ethical implications. What we eat affects and is affected by an intricate global food chain. We fight over food. We deny food to some as a tool of suppression and cultural erasure. We fear for our health, the challenge of feeding a growing global population, and the effects of climate change on food production.

Featuring more than 100 works ranging from drawings, paintings, photographs, prints, sculptures, and ceramics by 37 artists such as John Baldessari, Enrique Chagoya, Alex Katz, Alison Saar, Lorna Simpson, Andy Warhol, and four Oregon-based artists, Katherine Ace, Chris Antemann, Malia Jensen, and Sherrie Wolf, The Art of Food showcases how some of the most prominent artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have considered this universal subject. Organized thematically, it uses an artistic lens to examine the subject of food beyond its purpose as body fuel. The works in the exhibition are from the renowned collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation.

This exhibition was organized by the University of Arizona Museum of Art and curated by Olivia Miller, Curator of Collections. Support for this exhibition and related education and outreach programs has been made possible by a grant from the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation.