Jeffrey Allen Price is the quintessential potato artist.
For more than three decades, he has explored the potato as subject, symbol, material, metaphor, collaborator, and cultural artifact through an unusually wide range of artistic media and creative practices. What began as a series of experimental artworks in the early 1990s gradually evolved into a lifelong interdisciplinary investigation that would eventually become known as POTATOISM.
Than I Can Chew.,” Video Stills, 2004. (click image to play video)
Throughout this period, the potato has appeared in drawings, paintings, sculptures, printmaking, photography, video art, installation art, performance, music, literature, short stories, essays, lectures, exhibitions, festivals, publications, websites, archives, logo design, posters, apparel, community projects, collections, educational programs, social media projects, and even comedy. In some cases the potato functioned as a physical material; in others it appeared as a symbol, metaphor, fictional character, historical subject, cultural artifact, or conceptual framework.
The resulting body of work includes potato-themed songs, performances, films, books, lectures, exhibitions, collections, websites, stories, logos, costumes, festivals, community dinners, and countless visual artworks. The potato has served as subject matter for both serious scholarly inquiry and playful experimentation, moving freely between fine art, popular culture, education, agriculture, entertainment, and everyday life.
Many of these projects emerged from a simple question: What happens when an ordinary potato is treated with the same seriousness traditionally reserved for history, mythology, religion, politics, science, or fine art?
The resulting body of work has ranged from humorous and absurd to scholarly and philosophical. Some projects have focused on agriculture and food, while others have examined symbolism, folklore, popular culture, labor, identity, memory, collecting, media, and global cultural exchange. Across all of these investigations, the potato has remained a surprisingly flexible lens through which to explore the human experience.
Over the years, this practice has expanded beyond the production of individual artworks to include exhibitions, archives, publications, lectures, festivals, collections, collaborative projects, and the development of the Think Potato Institute itself. In this sense, making potato art gradually evolved into something larger: the creation of an entire cultural framework dedicated to understanding the potato’s significance in art and society.
Video courtesy of Nice Garage, 2016. (click image to play video)
While many artists become known for a particular style, medium, or technique, Jeffrey Allen Price became known for a subject. Over more than three decades, the potato has remained the one constant through an ever-expanding range of creative activities. The result is not simply a collection of potato-themed artworks, but a unique interdisciplinary practice that demonstrates how a single ordinary object can inspire a lifetime of artistic exploration.
Today, after more than thirty years of continuous experimentation, the potato remains an active source of inspiration. New projects continue to emerge, new media continue to be explored, and the boundaries of potato art continue to expand. The work remains unfinished, and that openness remains one of its greatest strengths.
Select Works of Potato Art by Jeffrey Allen Price:
