26 year old Brisbane artist CJ Hendry has seen her stock rapidly rise since she was discovered on Instagram by The Cool Hunter’s Bill Tikos. Her photo-realistic artwork has been noticed at an international level and is already selling at up to $50,000 a piece – recent customers include Kanye West, Vera Wang and David Caruso. What makes Hendry’s work so special is her attention to detail – every minuscule line, shadow and detail is captured. The City Lane was invited to the launch of Hendry’s latest exhibition “50 Foods In 50 Days” and were amazed by the drawings on display.
50 Foods in 50 days was inspired by Hendry’s reading of the accounts death row inmates during their final days. Using only a felt tip pen, Hendry proceeded to draw 50 foods displayed on 50 Hermès plates – with each photo being revealed on Instagram day-by-day in the lead up to the launch of the Melbourne exhibition.
The artwork alone is enough of a reason to come and see 50 foods in 50 days, but there’s more to the exhibition than just art. With the subject matter of the artwork being food on luxury plates, the gallery is actually doubling up as a luxury gourmet food store with a variety of food and food related products on offer – olive oils, sweets, teas, spices, books, cups and a whole lot more. We were particularly fond of the copper cups from Florida’s Yield Design that we spotted sitting in the “kitchen” portion of the exhibition.
Throughout the launch, guests were treated to a range of creative treats including charcoal lobster rolls, test tube pea and crème fraîche soup and parmesan, tomato and horseradish “ice cream”. Fun food is nothing if it doesn’t taste great and we’re happy to say that the food didn’t disappoint when it came to taste.
Henry’s work will be exhibited in New York later on this year, and she’s in fact going to be basing herself there so if you want to get a chance to see her brilliant artwork in a unique space, check out 50 foods in 50 days while you have the chance.
50 Foods In 50 Days
When: Friday 27 March 2015 to Sunday 12 April
Entry: Free
Where: 166 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy