The satisfaction of such a basic and prehistoric need as food has conditioned civilizations throughout history. From hunter man, to the appearance of agriculture and cereals, to the creation of cities, which were built around where food was found, or the beginning of the era of supermarkets. How we relate to food, what we buy, prepare and eat, are a reflection of the identity and social and culturalconventions of the time.

We don’t all know how to grow, buy or cook aliments, but we all have to eat: we must be expertsat feeding ourselves. However, our environment is evolving faster than our bodies: most of us lead sedentary lives in overheated buildings, but our appetites seem willing to accept whatever pace the food industry imposes on us, as Carolyn Steel says in the book “Hungry Cities”. Our ancient survival instinct is still intact in our brains and urges us to keep eating whatever is put in front of us, whether we are hungry or not.

From Roman mosaics and frescoes to sumptuous banquets of sacred art, the abundance in Arcimboldo’s fruit compositions or 17th century Flemish still lifes to Warhol’s iconic pop cans or Cattelan’s banana, food and the act of eating have represented central elements in the History of Art. And their practice speaks to us of consumption, class, identity, colonialism and globalization. But also of the act itself as fundamental as feeding ourselves as the basis of our subsistence.

Through their work, the artists in this exhibition help us to converse with food, creating new relationships with it or readapting old ones to the current context. Each of them, from their individual and inevitably global gaze, address themes such as excess, waste, symbolism, brands, lack and abundance.

Gluttony and provocation in the work of Ana Barriga (Jeréz de la Frontera, 1984), Hannah Epstein’s (Canada, 1985) interpretation of the tale of ‘Goldilocks’ through greed and Western consumer habits presenting the protagonist as the ultimate white colonizer who consumes the resources of others without any concern, the digital sedentarism, waste and anthropological analysis of a present in the work of Nicolás Romero (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1985), the ceramic feasts of Lusesita (La Rioja, 1979) and Laura Lagraña aka Culitomatón (Barcelona, 1995), the ordinariness of consumerism and the informality of the brands that surround us with Ricardo Passaporte (Lisbon, 1987); the excesses in the work of Bieke Buckinx (Brussels, 1988); the homage to food from Latin America in the iconic women of Fátima de Juan (1984, Palma de Mallorca); the reflection on the temptation and indulgence of human beings through our relationship with Mother Earth with Reihaneh Hosseini (Tehran, Iran, 1988) and the radiography with surrealist touches of Francesc Rosselló’s after-dinner ‘conversations’ (Mallorca, 1994).

Is there a relationship between how we consume food and how we consume art today, between the voracity of the art market and how we feed ourselves? This group show curated by the UVNT Art Fair team tries to resignify the obsession with food, its value and return to its most primary essence in a dialogue with contemporary painters.

Sergio Sancho and Sara Coriat