Quoting a report I found online:
The above is a piece by Victoria Reynolds called
Down the Primrose Path, and it's essentially a trompe l'oeil painting of raw steak. It's part of a series of meat-inspired works by Reynolds, which also includes more playful takes on more whimsical types of meat.
Reynolds is at least the third female contemporary artist I've heard of to use meat as a running motif in her work; in art school I remember seeing a lot of meat-themed work by Jana Sterbak, including Chair Apollinaire (1996), a club chair upholstered with flank steak. I remember walking into a Sterbak mid-career retrospective at MCA in Chicago, and the smell of the work just completely taking over the space – well-meaning but clueless tourists drifted into the gallery smiling, and then marched right out again with contorted faces. And also very recently a Chilean artist named Gabriela Rivera caused a controversy with this video piece, in which she documents the act of covering her naked body with raw meat. I also want to say that Janine Antoni dabbled in the meat art game, but she might have just stuck to chocolate and lard.
Jana Sterbak
Chair Apollinaire, 1996
Flank steak and black button thread
on polyester resin structure
Gabriela Rivera's video forms part of a controversial exhibition at Santiago's Sala Juan Egenau gallery. She said: "My work is a metaphor for the relationship that people have with themselves every day when they look in the mirror." The exhibition also includes videos of women urinating in the street and smashing boiled eggs with their hands.
Las Ultimas Notician reports that many visitors have complained that they found it disgusting.