Taste: Food and Feasting in Art

Stimulate your taste buds in this sumptuous visual feast offering a variety of artistic flavours and textures.

Art reveals the central place of food in all cultures. Different peoples develop their own relationships with food, from the careful preparation of traditional dishes to the communal consumption of celebratory feasts. Brueghel's A Village Fair and Lindauer's Time of Kai depict communities observing these time-honoured traditions. Renowned photographers Marti Friedlander, Gil Hanly and Glenn Jowitt document Polynesian food practices. Jae Hoon Lee looks at the global migration of food culture, composing his own Kiwi feast from random Korean meals recreated in plastic.

Historically, food in art was often laden with symbolic meaning. Pop artists radicalised the depiction of food with works like Warhol's Campbell's Soup Can and Ruscha's Exploding Cheese.

Modern living has brought new approaches to food. Brian Brake's photos of Picasso and friends speak to cafe culture, while Robin White's Fish and chips, Maketu is an iconic emblem of New Zealand cuisine.

Sustainability concerns contemporary artists like Ani O'Neill, who uses recycled wool for her crocheted octopus stuffed with empty plastic water bottles. Ruth Watson’s newly commissioned butter mountain takes a post-recession look at New Zealand's relationship to the global food trade.

Come to Auckland Art Gallery this summer and revel in the luscious beauty of food and the tactile, sensual qualities of art.

Taste is a mouth-watering experience not to be missed.

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