Farm to Table

Our daily routines include– if not revolve– around food. We participate in rituals around preparing and consuming it, and there are industries with millions of jobs in the US dedicated to producing it. Food is a part of our memories of home and family, as well as a part of celebrating cultural traditions. Restaurants serve as places where these types of memories can be made, where communities can gather to enjoy a meal and where the preparation of food is considered an art form. Historically, food in still lifes represented metaphors for abundance, morality, and ephemerality, while agrarian landscape works offered picturesque depictions of rural life.

This exhibition features permanent collection works from the 17th century to the present that emphasize our close connection to food. Here, artists look at the ways we produce and consume food, even the gendered associations tied to cooking and domesticity. Through these artworks, viewers can sample a taste of the environmental and social ingredients that go into (and beyond) what we put on the table.

Featured Artists: Richard Benson, Herbert Cyrus Farnum, Donna Ferrato, Lucas Foglia, Leslie M. W. Graff, Nancy Grace Horton, Alen MacWeeney, Abraham Mignon, Neal Rantoul, and Meredith Stern