The Bronx River Art Center Presents:
The Sculpture of Food

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Opening reception Friday, March 20th, 6-9pm, at 305 East 140th Street, Bronx, NY.
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On view from March 20th to April 11th, the second of exhibition series
Food Systems, Surroundings & Sensibilities.
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Saturday, April 11th Foraging Tour by SPURSE
The Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) is pleased to announce The Sculpture of Food, the
second in a two-year series of ten exhibitions that will run through 2016, entitled Food
Systems, Surroundings & Sensibilities. The exhibition will open with a reception on Friday
March 20th from 6 to 9pm at BRAC’s temporary gallery space in Mott Haven, the Bronx.
If sculpture can explore the physical, tactile implications of material and all of the cultural
significance that it brings with it, then The Sculpture of Food achieves this transference of
meaning through that which we eat. In the works on display, food is both a building block
for an art object and an idea to be conveyed. The materials chosen by each artist to
construct the works, whether they be stone, fur, paper or candy, create significance that
could contradict or add to the cultural weight that belongs to an everyday package of candy
or a bloody side of beef.
Curated by Karine Duteil, The Sculpture of Food is part of BRAC’s larger curatorial effort to
draw attention to food as a creative medium and muse, indicator of culture, and pressing
social and political issue, most importantly specific to the Bronx.

More about the exhibitions series:
This exhibition series is designed to shine light on the fact that although The Bronx is at the heart of New York
City’s food system (the Bronx Terminal Produce Market supplies fruits and vegetables to supermarkets and
restaurants across the city, feeding millions of its inhabitants). Ironically, many parts of the borough are
identified as “food deserts.” This paradox engenders questions that our project will seek to answer: How are
Bronx residents affected by available food choices? What are the challenges for a 21s t- century city to feed all of
its population? How are ideas of sustainability, livability and healthy environments being explored –and how
should they be implemented for the future of our community? What roles can artists, community organizations
and local activists play within these scenarios? The conceptual framework of Food: Systems, Surroundings &
Sensibilities addresses these perspectives in order to identify inspiring and achievable solutions through the
cross-fertilization of artists with our community’s diverse groups of inhabitants and within its specific and
distinctive landscape.
About the Bronx River Art Center:
Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) is a culturally diverse, multi-arts, non-profit organization that provides a forum
for community, artists, and youth to transform creativity into vision. Our Education, Exhibitions, and Presenting
Programs cultivate leadership in an urban environment and stewardship of our natural resource, the Bronx
River. For more information visit www.bronxriverart.org
This project is supported in part with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, Art Works; The New York
City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and The New York State Council on the Arts with
the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and The New York State Legislature. Related education and public programs
are supported, in part, by Con Edison, the 42nd Street Development Corporation, and the generosity of our patrons.
The Bronx River Art Center expresses its appreciation for the support of The City of New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Bronx
Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., Councilmember Ritchie Torres, and members of the Council’s Bronx Delegation.
Special thanks to our local partners:
The Diego de la Vega Coffee Co-op, a project that offers organic coffee sourced locally in Chiapas, Mexico from
Zapatista autonomous farms. Our goal is to connect social movements and geographical regions: Chiapas and New York
City, with the goal of creating a horizontal financial flow between social movements.
Conti’s Pastry Shoppe
786 Morris Park Avenue
Bronx, NY 10462
Friends of Brook Park is a leading community-based environmental organization in the South Bronx. We
engage youth and adults in organic gardening, Community Supported Agriculture and arts and indigenous
cultural events and activities that convey a deep respect for the Natural world. In addition we are strong
advocates for environmental justice, waterfront access and green space development.
Corbin Hill Food Project was founded by a group of Harlem-based community investors, 51 percent
of whom were Black or Latino, and 72 percent were women. Its goal is to connect upstate farmers
with the urban communities most in need of fresh produce. Its Farm Share program, in which
individuals or families buy “shares” of fruit and vegetable harvests, has locations in Harlem, Washington Heights,
Brooklyn, and the Bronx. The Farm Share allows participants to pay by the week or month, and receive a discount if
paying with SNAP (food stamp) benefits.”