Islip Art Museum • East Islip, New York • 19 September–18 November 2012
Occupying Potato: Cult of Potato marked a major milestone in the development of the Think Potato Institute and represented one of the most ambitious potato-themed exhibitions organized by Jeffrey Allen Price to date. Presented at the Islip Art Museum, the exhibition brought together artists from ten countries whose work engaged the potato as symbol, subject matter, material, cultural artifact, and conceptual framework.
The exhibition was presented concurrently with Unpacking My Potato Collection in the museum’s Historical Room and Archie Rand: Potato Prints in the Museum Store Gallery. Together, the three exhibitions marked the first time in the museum’s history that all three exhibition spaces were united under a single curatorial theme and curator.
Occupying Potato reflected the growing international network that had emerged through Think Potato and the Cult of Potato. Artists from diverse backgrounds and disciplines contributed works ranging from painting, sculpture, photography, installation, and video to conceptual and socially engaged practices. The exhibition demonstrated the remarkable breadth of artistic approaches that could emerge from a common thematic focus and helped establish potato art as a legitimate field of cultural and artistic inquiry.
In many ways, the exhibition functioned as a manifesto for potato art, demonstrating that the potato could serve not only as subject matter, but also as metaphor, material, historical lens, political symbol, and catalyst for creative experimentation. By bringing together such a wide range of perspectives, the exhibition articulated one of the clearest statements yet of the possibilities and scope of the emerging field.
The project received significant regional and national attention, including coverage in The New York Times and other media outlets, and remains one of the most important institutional exhibitions in the history of the Think Potato Institute.
Explore Further
→ Occupying Potato: Cult of Potato (Full Exhibition)
→ Unpacking My Potato Collection (Full Exhibition)
→ Cult of Potato