Resin Food Art Show in Oakland Organic Ice Cream Parlor

Art? Check. Popjects? Check. Resin? Check. Coffee? Check. Local? Check. Ice cream? Check. Really, with that kind of pedigree, what’s left to say about Kristen Gentilucci‘s “Off the Wall Breakfast” food art show at Tara’s Organic Ice Cream in the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland?

Gentilucci writes:

I am on a weird kick in my world of art these days. My dad even said, “You used to be a painter, a graphic artist…what happened?” What happened…nothing is stagnant. I like the word tangent.

I like the word “tangent” too. I also like walking into an ice cream parlor in which food art objects adorn the walls. The wall-mounted cereal bowls ($35), breakfast plates ($30) and coffee/tea cups ($25) are meant to invoke the contentedness of childhood (before the evils of “high-fructose corn syrup”) and question what makes art.

I enjoyed seeing the work in person, but looking back at these photos (shot with my iPhone 4S, by the way), I wish she’d pushed it just a bit more. Captions like “Is it organic? How about local?” under a bowl of Fruit Loops and “College Dinners” under Cheerios provide clever commentary, but many others come off simply as resin-covered-breakfasts on the wall. For instance, the brand names of the sugars and teabags in the Coffee and Tea pieces jump out at me. I wonder what they’d look like if Gentilucci hijacked ’em, Ron English cereal-box style…?

Kristen Gentilucci’s Off the Wall Breakfast is up at Tara’s Organic Ice Cream through February 2nd. Go check it out with a scoop of unusual ice cream. (I recommend Black Sesame!) You’ll have fun.