“Toast to Counting, by Sandra Gross and Leah Busch, will make every child smile. After all, every child likes the idea of playing with his or her food.”
-Shari Schmidt, www.chicagonow.com
The greatest thing since sliced bread might be the glass toast by Sandra Gross and Leah Busch at The Art of Food, in its sixth year at the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center in Covington.
“This is going to be branding material,” gallery director Bill Seitz decided after the Brazee Street artists delivered a small serving at last year’s show. Figuratively speaking, half a loaf was not enough. This year, the colorful, glossy slices decorate the exhibit’s program and deservedly have a big room of their own.
Gross and Busch elevate a craft to an art form. A tile might look like Wonder Bread, but it’s not mass-produced, Seitz says, noting that each piece is time-intensive, as the glass is fired multiple times for different effects.
And what effects! Plaid toast pops out of a vintage toaster. A rack of Rothko toast glows in shades of orange, red and brown. Images of Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, the Virgin Mary and even W.C. Fields are mini-miracles. The room’s centerpiece is a light table displaying dozens of slices topped with glass butter, jam, cheese and sunny-side-up eggs. The artists have even sprinkled “cinnamon” to make smiley faces, as a parent might do to amuse a child at breakfast. Seitz calls such a memory-triggering detail “another layer of animation.”
THE ART OF FOOD exhibit is free and continues through April 13 at Covington’s Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center.
