Dr Megan R. Fizell
art historian | writer | curator
I am an art historian and theorist of modern and contemporary art employing edible materials. In 2021, I completed my PhD (Art Theory) at UNSW Art & Design, and my research focused on the sensory and affective experiences of food art within broader sociocultural frameworks. Employing an interdisciplinary approach, I considered the role of physiological and cultural forms in reactivating embedded behaviours and responses during gustatory art encounters.
I have over a decade of experience working in the GLAM sector in London and Sydney. I am currently Curator, Special Collections and Exhibitions at UNSW Library where I collaborate on research-based exhibitions, public art commissions, publications, and interdisciplinary projects.
My writing has been published in art journals and magazines, including Artlink, Art Monthly Australasia, and art:21, among others. In addition, I contributed to the exhibition catalogues for Jedzenie w sztuce | Food in Art (MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow, 2024) and Acquired Taste: Food and the Art of Consumption (California State University, 2011).
Significant curatorial projects include Aftertaste (2023), a guest-curated exhibition at Fairfield City Museum & Gallery (Cabrogal / Fairfield) about food, memory and culture; Sugar, Sugar (2013), which featured contemporary art made exclusively with sugar by ten female artists; and Mouthfeel (2015-2018), an exhibition of video work exploring synaesthetic responses in the viewer. Mouthfeel travelled to MAY SPACE (Gadigal / Sydney), Parer Place Urban Screens at QUT (Meanjin / Brisbane), Northern Centre for Contemporary Art (Larrakia / Darwin), and Upper CVPA Gallery, University of Massachusetts (Wampanoag / Dartmouth, MA).
The name of this website, Feasting on Art, is the name of digital research / writing / cooking project I undertook from 2009 to 2015. I developed recipes based on the ingredients depicted in still life paintings and the site received media attention in ARTNews and The Guardian, among others. An archive of the project is available here.
I live, work, and travel through the unceded lands of the Gadigal and Bidjigal peoples. I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land and pay my respects to Elders past and present, their culture, and continued connection to land and community.
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The content on this website is protected by copyright. Please send an email to mfizell [AT] gmail [DOT] com to enquire about using any materials in print or on the web.