In 2020 the Food Art Collection, a small but mighty gallery on Seattle’s Capitol Hill (which doubles as the apartment of gallerist Jeremy Buben), presented an exhibit of the last representational paintings I made, twenty-some tiny circles depicting close-ups of processed mid-century foodstuffs.

That series was transitional and transformative for me. I had been trying to decide whether I wanted to continue painting on printed fabric; it was feeling increasingly confining, forcing me into a particular way of handling paint that had served me well but which I was possibly done with. I had a lot of tiny plywood “doughnut holes” left over from making the backings of circular panels, so I covered them with clean masonite and started in, loose and painterly.

It was the first step away from the figurative work on printed fabric that I’d been doing for thirty years (which incidentally started with a lot of paintings of deviled eggs). A couple of screenprints and an installation later, I had become a completely different artist, leaving representation and even painting behind.

When Jeremy exhibited the 24 tiny food paintings at the gallery, he also purchased two (pictured above and below), adding them to the collection of food-themed art he’d been amassing. This week the entire collection is being auctioned off as a sort of art project in itself.

Over the past 7 years I have collected art with a singular motif: food. But outside of that unifying theme, the collection is anything but homogeneous. The collection evolved into about 200 artworks and objects, now they will be auctioned, without reserve, to the public a little over a week from now on June 25. The collection includes paintings, prints, photography, sculpture, furnishings, antiques, books, objects, and even lighting.

Jeremy Buben, Food Art Collection

The collection will be displayed for the last time in its entirety at the Museum of Museums (MoM) June 22nd through June 25th, with a public preview reception on Friday, June 24th from 5-10 PM. The auction is online here and bids can be placed through 5PM PDT June 25, 2022. There is also a catalog for sale.