American Bodegónes by Liz Obert

This body of work reflects on mortality, the human condition, and our culture’s obsession with materialism. Through imagery inspired by Dutch and Spanish paintings, it expresses the transience of our existence by exploring our shared relationship with food.

As Western culture evolved from the Industrial Revolution, our food became factory-based and more processed. Choosing ease over nutrition, people created the fast-food industry. Now, there are places, particularly in inner cities, where this is the only kind of food people have access to. Because of this, many of us have lost touch with our food chain.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, artists in the Netherlands created Vanitas still-life paintings that presented objects, representing earthly possessions and consumption, as a warning to the soul. In Spain, they created similar imagery in their Bodegónes, which were paintings of traditional pantries filled with vegetables and game. These still lifes represented the increasing role of material possessions and their relationship to food.

I am inspired by these paintings because I find our present consumerism parallel to the cautionary themes of Vanitas and Bodegónes. Beyond their warnings, I’ve come to appreciate these works as meditations on the fleeting nature of existence and reflections of our shared human experience.

I explore the origins of our modern Western diet and the abundance of processed food. It’s so easy to forget its origins. I aim to create narratives of our food’s sources, exposing the beautiful and grotesque of the natural world.






Liz Obert
Liz Obert is a lens-based artist based in the Pacific Northwest. Her current work is a reflection on mortality and the human condition, along with our culture’s obsession with materialism. It expresses the transience of our existence through our shared experiences with food through imagery inspired by Dutch’s paintings.

She has a BFA from the College of Santa Fe and an MFA from Washington State University. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with showcases in Spain, France, and Hungary. Her work has been published in outlets including The Missouri Review, Slate, The Huffington Post, and others.
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