ARTIST STATEMENT
Food and Art are how I express myself. It’s a visual diary or subconscious release of memories buried. Stockfish is memory buried from growing up with Nigerian father whose soups and stews emitted a funky spicy aroma from the Stockfish. As a child I turned up my nose but the more evolved culinarian today identifies it as the Unami that defines a dish. From the most Nordic Cuisines, to the east , west and south , dried fish is the oldest food staple. Sharpening My Oyster knife was a chronicle of a dark toxic time working as older black female chef in an oyster bar. A metaphysical warning of seeing the a reflection of a man in my oyster knife in a photo prompted the painting. I took photos of oysters as they inspired me artistically and opened an artistic portal for myself. Oysters are a filter.
Zora Neal Hurston said… “I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it. Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less. No, I do not weep at the world—I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Courtney Nzeribe is a Chicago based multi media artist who works primarily with paint, printmaking, fibers and beading. Courtney studied Fashion Design at Parsons School of Design in Paris France. Her illustrations have appeared in Gastronomica University of California Press February 2020, Hastiness of Cooks, a medieval culinary cookbook, and winner of the 2020 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, and Stock Journal Spring 2023. Her paintings have been shown at Artbarn 28th Annual Juried Art Exhibition, Bridgeport Art Center Sweet Home Chicago. Her fiber and beaded work will be in the upcoming Woman Made Gallery exhibition Time Memory Mythos, and Bridgeport Art Centers Pop exhibition.
© Courtney Nzeribe