Picnic: An Exhibit About Food

Picnic: An Exhibit about Food

July 8-August 21, 2016

Picnic reveals our culture’s obsession with growing, preparing, marketing and consuming food. From capturing whole foods to packaged processed foods, artists Gayle BonDurant, Ann Marie Campbell, Elizabeth Chape, Kristen Cumings, Leslie duPratt, Linda S. Fitz Gibbon, Marlene Lee, Karen Shapiro, John Stuart Berger, Jeff Nebeker, Rebecca Ryland, Terry Thompson, Jean Van Keuren, and Bryce Vinokurov, meditate on the beauty of making and sharing the treats that we love.

Yolo County is one of the most productive agricultural areas for growing fruits and vegetables in the country. Thus many of these artists have visited farms and farmer’s markets, in the hopes of capturing the beauty of harvest. Yolo Arts has coordinated a program where artists paint at local farms, and artists like Linda Fitz Gibbon and Rebecca Ryland who depict local produce have both participated in this ongoing event.

Several of the artists whose work is on display show desserts and sugary treats such as soda, candy, and cakes. Whereas ‘fooling the eye’ is key in Jeff Nebeker’s ceramic cakes and pies, it’s done in a different way with artist Kristen Cumings’ large scale reproductions of masterworks from art history, such as Girl with a Pearl Earring. On loan from the Jelly Belly collection, where many of her Jelly-Belly laden works are on display, Cumings mixed high art with a distinctly non-art material to make amazingly complex pieces.

Many of the works included relate to the marketing of food as well, such as Terry Thompson’s TV Dinner, an easy meal that was seen as a treat by children as it could be enjoyed with your favorite show on a TV tray. Picnic also shares the importance of making and enjoying a meal among friends and family. Bryce Vinokurov’s paintings include humorous scenes of food-obsessed suburbanites, who battle with legs of prosciutto and pizza boards, in a distinctly Italianate setting.

In all, whatever their particular theme or subject, each artist has an interesting look into the basic food stuffs that make up our daily meals. Enjoy!

Sponsored by Dick & Joy Dorf.