Ki Smith Gallery: Bobby Grossman – Corn Flakes & More

03/08/25 – 04/13/25 Ki Smith Gallery
Bobby Grossman – Corn Flakes & More

“Wish I was a Kellogg’s Cornflake Floatin’ in my bowl …” That’s how the Simon and Garfunkel song begins.

July 1975, I was enjoying my summer break from RISD – running wild in New York City. Then I came down with mono which left me camped out in bed for the summer listening to music, watching TV, reading and creating art. I clicked through channels for shows like Columbo, The Brady Bunch and Supermarket Sweep, and drank Coca Cola while browsing magazine favourites: Creem, Crawdaddy, Rock Scene, Interview and Rolling Stone. I read the recently published The Philosophy of Andy Warhol while playing the Lou Reed’s latest album Metal Machine Music. This is when I created my first Corn Flakes box collage. I appropriated a Mick Rock photograph of Lou Reed fashioning Vivienne Westwood for a paste up and my first pop art Kellogg’s Corn Flakes box. My friend David Pollack, an ace pop culture maven and Ovaltine jar collector stopped by, suggesting I continue the series with famous people on future Corn Flakes boxes. Shortly after, my friend Lib Mason in Hamburg wrote me a letter on the back of a German Corn Flakes box now creating – “Lou Reed Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Die Originalen.” A few years passed before my first photo shoot, bringing along a box of Corn Flakes, a favorite fruit, a carton of milk and a cereal bowl. In 1978, New York Rocker published eight of my Corn Flakes boxes as full pages over three issues. Looking back, I was just having fun with my friends.

Bobby Grossman