Pearl River Mart Exhibition

My first solo exhibition at Pearl River Mart gallery opened Jan. 20 – April 24th, 2022. New York City.

Food does much more than keep us alive. It evokes memories, emotions, and meaning. It's about how we grew up or didn't grow up. How we choose to be. It's about the places we've been or wish we were. It's about togetherness and apartness. The past and the future.

For artist Nancy Pappas, food represents rediscovery. As an artist and traveler. A midwesterner, New Yorker, and ex-pat. A Korean adoptee and Korean American. It's about getting back to her roots — those first simple ingredients that come together to make a more complex whole.

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Artist-in-Residence Nancy Pappas: A Journey Through Art, Food, and Identity

For the New York-and-Seoul-based artist, food is much more than about taste or feeling full. It's about learning who she is as an artist and Korean adoptee, and where she fits in the world.

"Korea is digestible and modern — it's foreign but friendly, and although I had been in therapy for some time prior to prepare myself, it was still very overwhelming, as you can imagine. The whole experience was very mind-out-of-body. I'm definitely still processing the whole thing and trying to understand where I belong in it all."