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Caption

  • Oil painting of a carved wooden table. On top, a bunch of red grapes on a box beside a glass of white wine and a halved peach.

A feast for the eyes

April 5, 2025 – March 19, 2026

Description

Food is essential to our survival and can be one of our greatest pleasures. Since the earliest cave paintings of hunting scenes, some 43,000 years ago, artists have depicted our relationship with food. They explore how it shapes daily routines, livelihoods and landscapes. The works in this exhibition record how food has transformed the countryside, influenced the development of towns and played a central role in genres such as still life and botanical art.

Highlights

  • An abstract landscape painting. The land is simplified into geometric planes of colour in soft, abstract forms.
  • Oil painting of a water mill in the countryside. Cows and pigs graze in the foreground.
  • Oil painting of a carved wooden table. On top, a bunch of red grapes on a box beside a glass of white wine and a halved peach.
  • Photograph of various food related items including lettuce, tomatoes, radishes and a brown cooking pot on a wooden table.
  • A watercolour painting of convolvulus and green wheat arranged on the ground.
  • A woman sleeps in bed, one arm on the floor, in a cluttered room. Food and a newspaper are on a table in the foreground.
  • Engraving of a group of men in 18th century clothing in an elaborate dining room around a table. It is a chaotic scene with men at various stages of inebriation.
  • Ink drawing on paper of 20th century Queen Street, Exeter.
  • Watercolour painting of a 19th century market. Many people and horses visit the stalls surrounding the edge of a square.
  • Pencil drawing of a wine store. A man kneels in front of a wine barrel, filling a bottle.
  • Pencil drawing of a wine cellar. The roof is curved and supported by wooden posts and beams. Crates of wine bottles and a wine barrel cover the cobbled floor.
  • Screen print of Mol's Coffee House in Exeter. A 16th century white building with black beams on a blue background.
  • Watercolour painting of Boscastle harbour at low tide in the 19th century. A ship is moored in the background while a woman and two children forage in the foreground.
  • Watercolour painting of boats on the sea. Sails billow in the wind.
  • Watercolour painting of the star fruit plant.
  • Watercolour painting of the sacred lotus plant.

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