Abstract
- Final month, Olympia in New York hosted CAKE, a one-night-only present of edible works.
- Half fundraiser, exhibition and neighborhood occasion, attendees have been invited to indulge within the unfold of works, starting from conventional tears of yellow muffins, large sculptural shows, vibrant mounds of meringue and frosting-printed poems.
As evenings develop balmier, and New York’s artwork scene eases into its seasonal slowdown, a crowd spills out onto the streets exterior of Olympia, fork and plate in-hand, for a CAKE, a particular one-night-only exhibition of edible artworks. Taking cues from Marie Antoinette’s notorious – if apocryphal – quip, “Allow them to eat cake,” the exhibition served up confectionery items by over 30 advantageous artists, reworking the two-floored Decrease East Aspect house right into a pop-up dessert salon.
Whereas the thought for the present started as, within the gallery’s phrases, “a satirical response to an more and more bitter international sociopolitical panorama,” what emerged was a young meditation on pleasure, ephemerality and meals’s unifying energy. A playful act of revolt towards the normal “look don’t contact” gallery mannequin, CAKE invited viewers to interrupt the foundations by, actually, breaking bread.
Be it by way of coloration, texture, approach or idea, every dessert expands on its artist’s broader observe in frosted poetry, exploring subjects like anti-commodification, labor and decay. Works on view ranged from tongue-in-cheek delights, like Heather Benjamin’s vibrant “Cockroach Cupcakes” and Robin F. Williams’ cartoonish “Pie within the Face,” to items with a extra “actual or cake” sculptural edge — Leah Dixon’s towering “Bavarian Khalifa,” a mid-sprint observe scene from Eli Hill and Stephanie Temma Hier’s “Cake Seafood Platter.” Standout additions additionally embody Naomi Nakazato’s foamy yuzu crater and Madeline Bach’s “Orchid Summit II.”
Since its founding in 2020, the gallery, helmed by Ali Rossi, has led with its penchant for the subversive and defiant. On this summer time night time, Olympia introduced this mission to new depths, with intimacy, connection and neighborhood abound: the unstated resolution to a maintain centerpiece untouched, the numerous fingers that handed by way of the works earlier than you and the usage of meals as an sudden artwork medium – one which alters you in its act.
Learn on for the total checklist of featured artists.
Alicia Adamerovich
Yura Adams
Cassandra Mayela Allen
Madeline Bach
Hannah Beerman
Heather Benjamin
Wells Chandler
Fung Cheung
Magnet Curry
Emily Davidson
Leah Dixon
Tamara Gonzales
Aisling Hamrogue
Colleen Herman
Stephanie Temma Hier
Eli Hill
Erin Lee Jones
Melissa Joseph
Hein Koh
Lizzy Lunday
Lee Maxey
Cristina de Miguel
Nicole Mourino
Naomi Nakazato
Sarah Nsikak
Keisha Prioleau-Martin
Erika Ranee
Adrianne Rubenstein
Alex Schmidt
Pauline Shaw
Jessica Stoller
Robin F. Williams
Mie Yim.
