Julie Green's 'The Last Supper' Death Row Final-Meal Ceramics to Show at Grand Rapids Art Museum

Starting on October 3, the Grand Rapids Art Museum will showcase Julie L. Green's ceramic collection, The Last Supper, for just over a year. This series, crafted by the late artist (1961–2021) between 1999 and 2001, features mass-produced ceramic plates re-fired with cobalt blue mineral paint, depicting the last meal requests of executed individuals in the U.S. Each plate notes the meal's date and location, with some including prison responses to Green's inquiries, which sometimes resulted in denials. Green remarked, "A final meal request humanizes death row for me." The project was inspired by a 1999 newspaper article about a man’s last meal. In total, 1,676 people have been executed in the U.S. in the last 50 years, predominantly in the South, with Texas alone accounting for 600. The exhibition will also present installation views and informative captions.