Breakfast of Champeens

May 19 - June 30, 2001

Featuring Bucky & Fluff's Craft Factory, Tom Dean, Sadko Hadzihasanovic, Andrew Harwood, Jay Isaac, Suzy Lake, Will Munro, Marty Spellerberg and Julie Voyce.

We were always told that breakfast is the most important meal of every day. Of course, that's assuming you wake up on right side of the bed. Paul Petro Contemporary Art is pleased to present the group show Breakfast of Champeens, an exhibition that explores some of the many ways breakfast culture gets played out on the menu of lifestyle choices. With images of the wonderbread years floating in our heads and "eat your breakfast and you'll grow up to be big and strong" ringing in our ears we've pulled together a smorgasbord of responses. According to a variety of sources...you are what you eat or you eat what you want to be.

Bucky & Fluff's Craft Factory (Allyson Mitchell & Lex Vaughn) have produced lamps and lightboxes where the fabric of the shades has been replaced with acetate-based images of Good Housekeeping-type breakfast alternatives. Tom Dean has produced Good Morning! , an edition of ten breakfast napkins using his wonderbread fabric. Sadko Hadzihasanovic has contributed silver-leafed paintings from 1995 with images of muscle-builder hopefuls and jars of honey and ginseng. Andrew Harwood's photo-collages portray the artist and a professional hockey player who definitely eats his Wheaties.

Jay Isaac's three paintings from Stills From Phanta-Royale portray cinematic food-based still life images. Suzy Lake continues her Suzy Spice work (where the middle-aged persona tries to keep up to the demands of youth culture) with the latest staged photographs highlighting her hormone pills. Will Munro continues his underwear-based work with a particular take on sports bars and Hooter's and a "brief" take on masculinity.

And Julie Voyce's watercolour About 17 from 1995 portrays the waitress with the ample bosom and tight bra bringing that first cup of coffee of the day. These works ... and more.

For Marty Spellerberg's "Sync-Up," click here.