In the age of Instagram, food is a visual obsession. “The Shared Meal,” an exhibition at Artworks in Trenton, dives deeper, exploring the meaning of food through the work of nine visual artists. Two paintings by renowned Trenton painter Mel Leipzig are included. The first pictures his family around the kitchen table in 1975, the second, his daughter’s family around her own kitchen table over 30 years later.
The curator is Lora Marie Durr, an artist/educator who’s received awards at both the state and national levels. Durr began her series of placemat-size paintings titled “What’s for Lunch?” when she was faced by the difference between the free lunches her students were receiving and her own organic, locally-sourced meals. Artworks kicked off “The Shared Meal” exhibition with an actual shared meal: Chef Joe Mooney of Princeton’s renowned restaurant Mistral prepared a multi-course dinner that raised money for both the community education program at Artworks and the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen.
