Press ReleaseFor immediate use

March 2009

Pot Luck: Food and Art22 May – 19 July 2009

The New Art Gallery Walsall

Bobby Baker, Han Bing, Helen Chadwick, Gayle Chong Kwan, Mona Hatoum, Aaron Head, Lia Anna Hennig, Damien Hirst, Anya Gallaccio, Antony Gormley, Subodh Gupta, Anthony Key, Lucy+Jorge Orta, Rainer Prohaska, Manuel Saiz, Jana Sterbak and Karen Tam.

Curated by Cynthia Morrison-Bell and Anthony Key

Press Preview: Thursday 21 May, 2pm-4pm

Travel costs from outside the region will be reimbursed

A llama in a supermarket, a life size Chinese restaurant and a bubbling chocolate fountain... The visual feast that awaits at The New Art Gallery Walsall this summer is almost good enough to eat!

The New Art Gallery Walsall is proud to be the launch venue for a major new

touring exhibition Pot Luck: Food and Art, produced by Art Circuit Touring

Exhibitions.

Pot Luck brings together works by 17 acclaimed international contemporary artists

including Damien Hirst, Mona Hatoum, Antony Gormley and Subodh Gupta,

who explore the continuing relationship between food and art. With each artist

bringing a ‘dish’ to the table, the exhibition will combine personal tastes with the

current flavour of our social and political climate.

From antiquity to today, food has been a recurring subject matter in the history of

art; from early depictions in mythological scenes to those found in religious art of all

cultures. Food represents ideas of desire, pleasure, greed, excess, life and death;

it is the very substance that sustains life and also takes it away.

Co-curator Cynthia Morrision-Bell explains “In today’s media culture of celebrity

chefs, size zero models and ever increasing obesity levels, food is never far from

our consciousness and an exhibition on this subject is very timely.”

Pot Luck has been conceived in the mood of an informal gathering of invited

artists rather then a survey show. Amongst the works, Anya Gallaccio brings the

wine in her unique work Motherlode (2005) and Anthony Gormley’s Bread Line

(1994), alludes to both the fictitious forest trail left by Hansel & Gretel and the cold

reality of economic divides. Damien Hirst’s Last Supper (1999) featuring 13

lithographs mimicking pharmaceutical products, provides a moment of

contemplation whilst Helen Chadwick’s seminal work Cacao (1994) – a 3 metre

wide bubbling, chocolate fountain – provides the ultimate final course. The New

Art Gallery Walsall is the only venue on the tour to be exhibiting this major

installation.

The exhibition includes photography, sculpture and video as well as newly

commissioned installations by Lia Anna Hennig, Aaron Head and Karen Tam.

Works include a salami rain cloud, a model food van and a life size replica of a

Chinese restaurant.

As the gallery prepares to create Walsall’s very own ‘China Town’, Helen Jones,

Exhibitions Curator comments “It is rare to present an exhibition which so strongly

resonates with all of our lives. Food not only provides our daily sustenance but

acts as a vital ingredient in our relationship with others, our social well-being and

our individual beliefs. The exhibition will present a feast for all the senses.”

Curated by Cynthia Morrison-Bell and Anthony Key. Produced by Art Circuit

Touring Exhibitions. Pot Luck: Food and Art is funded by Arts Council England

with support from Canada House Arts Trust

Ends

Notes to Editors

The exhibition opens at The New Art Gallery Walsall on 22 May 2009 and will tour

to Aberystwyth Art Centre, Wales in July and Pitshanger Manor Museum, London,

in October 2009.

Press PreviewThe Press Preview will take place on Thursday 21 May 2009, 2pm-4pm

PreviewThe exhibition Preview will take place on Thursday 21 May 2009, 6pm-8pm

Art CircuitArt Circuit Touring Exhibitions is a not for profit organisation involved in curating

and touring art exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Art Circuit

collaborates with artists and outside curators to present a variety of recent trends

and aesthetic concerns with the aim to broaden the understanding of contemporary

visual culture.

PublicationA fully illustrated exhibition catalogue accompanies this exhibition called Pot Luck:

Food and Art. For press copies of the book please contact Hollie Latham on

01922 654402

Interviews and further informationFor interview opportunities with Exhibitions Curator, Helen Jones and Cynthia

Morrison-Bell, images and further information please contact the Marketing team

on 01922 654416 or email Chris Wilkinson on wilkinsonc@walsall.gov.uk

The New Art Gallery is run and maintained by Walsall Council and also receives

significant financial support from Arts Council England. The gallery is open Monday

to Saturday 10am to 5pm, Sunday 11am to 4pm. Admission is free.

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