The Instagram-Favorite Artist Who Makes Masks Out of Food Is the Star of a New Show About the Intersection of Art and Cuisine

That old saying that you are what you eat means something a little different to artist Antonius Oki Wiriadjaja.

The 38-year-old New York City-based artist and activist is also known by the moniker Foodmasku, an alter ego he developed during the height of the pandemic in April 2020.

The story goes that during a Zoom meeting (back when it was still a novelty), a colleague couldn’t remove their pickle-face filter.

Wiriadjaja, a former Fulbright Scholar in Indonesia, promptly put his own dinner fixings on his face. The artist, hearing laughter “for the first time in a month,” thereby created Foodmasku.

Selected as one of the ‘s top Instagram art accounts, the project has expanded in the last two years as Wiriadjaja has begun minting NFTs of his gourmet masks. 

Ahead of Armory Week in New York, Foodmasku is now kicking off a five-week exhibition at Brooklyn’s Invisible Dog Art Center with a performance-cum-dinner party on September 10 to mark the center’s 14th season.

During the event, a couple will eat their food masks off one another. Pretty cool.

The show, titled “Nafas,” features more than 30 artists whose work relates to food, with all examples selected by the gallery’s artistic director, Lucien Zayan.

Artists participating in the events include Allison Walker, Raven Leilani, Garth Greenwell, Khaled Hourani, JR, and Meriem Bennani.

“In Arabic, is a breath or a spirit. But in the context of cooking, is much more than that” said Invisible Dog resident artist Reem Kassis. “It’s the energy some people possess that makes their meals not only good but exceptional.”

The show opens September 10 and is on through October 15. Find more information here.