I now go to see a lot of contemporary art but I still see some pieces that really take me by surprise.

This was the case last week when I went into the Gagosian gallery on Davies Street in London. The exhibition is called Roman Meal and the artist is Kathleen Ryan, who I hadn’t heard of before.

There were only two artworks but they were big, stunning and very unusual.

(As always, all images are my own. Click on any image to see a full screen version in a lightbox - then click the top right cross to return.)

One is titled Sliced Bread (Golden Hour) and it depicts a mouldy slice of bread. I’m going to write the full list of materials here (as quoted in the exhibition printed hand out). Not because I think you’ll want to read the entire list but just because it’s astonishing to see the level of detail and amount of beads, stones and semi-precious stones which were used. When you see that a king sized mattress is the base of this, you’ll be able to envisage the size of it.

Sliced Bread (Golden Hour), 2025

Agate, labradorite, aventurine, argonite, jamesite, copper malachite, citrine, calcite, zeolite, magnesite, amazonite, celestite, prehnite, turquoise, quartz, rhyolite, carnelian, garnet, jasper, serpentine, pink opal, ruby in zoisite, amethyst, quartz, amber, marble, acrylic, steel pins, polyurethane foam, aluminium, king-size mattress

80 x 80 x 22 1/2 inches 203.2 x 203.2 x 57.2 cm

The second piece depicts two mouldy slices of lemon. This time the base of the piece is polystyrene and it’s topped with chrome fenders.

Fender Bender, 2025

Citrine, magnesite, agate, amazonite, turquoise, amethyst, aquamarine, prehnite, quartz, jasper, serpentine, onyx, unakite, marble, abalone, freshwater pearls, glass, acrylic, stainless steel nails, steel pins on coated poystyrene, chrome bumpers

68 x 84 x 72 inches 172.7 x 213.4 x 182.cm

I had seen photos of these when the exhibition was announced but I hadn’t paid too much attention at that time and I had a vague idea that they might be made of enamel due to the shine on them. I wasn’t expecting to see that they were made of thousands of single stones intricately placed. What struck me as well was that the back of the mattress is also completely covered in stones. I looked behind and then, because you can’t see all the way back, I asked the gallery assistant and he confirmed it. Just Wow! I wonder if it’ll end up being shown in such a way that the back and front of the piece are both visible.

So, a quick online search and I found that Kathleen Ryan is very well known in art circles. If I had gone to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2022 I would have seen her work on a giant poster advertising the show. That artwork was titled Bad Lemon (Josh). Her speciality is portraying mouldy fruit in a giant, exuberant way.

It’s both fascinating and sad. Sad because it reminded me of a story I read about a painting of a mouldy slice of bread. The writer said that the artist literally was a starving artist and may well have eaten the bread afterwards. I tried to recall the artist’s name but couldn’t find it. If you know please tell me.

If you think art should be thought provoking then this certainly is. A symbol of poverty, mouldy bread, has been transformed into a wonderful spectacle.

It even reminded me of my recent visit to the Folkestone Triennial (my previous blog). I was taking photos at the harbour and I heard a horrified voice say “Oh mum, this bread is mouldy”. I saw it was a young girl of around 11 with her family and they were stopping to have sandwiches for lunch. The mother quickly went over, picked off the mouldy part, threw it in the sea, said “There you go” and carried on her conversation with one of the others. It made me really appreciate my fish and chip lunch later with a nice glass of wine. I’ll bet that girl will be making a vow to herself to never eat mouldy bread when she’s older. I hope she never has to!

Although the bread artwork was spectacular, the mouldy lemon slices were so beautiful. There is a beauty in decay somehow. I know that I once kept a pumpkin and took regular photos as it decayed and sunk into itself.

The colours of the lemon are gorgeous in their contrast, mainly yellows, whites, aquas and greys contrasting with the silver of the chrome bumper representing the skin.

Here are some close ups of the stone and bead work.

And a view of the piece in the gallery setting to give a sense of the scale …

More close ups which, in my view, are beautiful on their own as abstract patterns.

An installation view…

I recently joined a small art club and one of the members creates beaded pictures. I’m sending her a copy of this blog and I look forward to hearing her opinion and chatting about these pieces.

This exhibition runs until 15 August 2025 so from the time of publishing this blog there’s still a week to visit if you’d like to. I certainly won’t forget Kathleen Ryan’s name now that I know it and I look forward to seeing more of her work in the future.

Just for fun, I’ll leave you for contrast with another slice of bread that caught my eye some time ago near Brick Lane. A piece of cute street art.

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Yours

Loren x

Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?