A pop-up art gallery in London is celebrating the 60th anniversary of Pop-Tarts by featuring art created from the breakfast pastries. Nathan Wyburn, a food artist from Cardiff, Wales, was commissioned to create three works of art for the Pop (T)Art Gallery Experience. He spent over 10 hours constructing portraits of Marilyn Monroe and the Mona Lisa using more than 120 Pop-Tarts. Wyburn described the experience as unique and intriguing, capturing the essence of pop art by making the ordinary extraordinary. Despite the challenge of recreating iconic pieces, he believes the portraits look epic made out of Pop-Tarts, bringing a playful new life to the art.
Visitors to the gallery will have the opportunity to create their own Pop-Tarts art, highlighting the little-known fact that Pop-Tarts were named after the pop-art movement. The gallery will be open on October 25-26 in London, and Shauna Leigh, senior director at Kellanova, is looking forward to seeing the reactions of visitors to the artwork and the creative expressions they come up with.
Pop-Tarts first debuted in 1964 in Cleveland, Ohio, after Kellogg’s chair William E. LaMothe had the idea of creating a toaster-ready breakfast option. Originally called the “Fruit Scone,” the product was renamed “Pop-Tarts” to align with the pop culture movement of the time. The original flavors were strawberry, blueberry, brown sugar cinnamon, and apple-currant, with apple-currant being eventually dropped. Today, Pop-Tarts are available in 33 varieties, including frosted, unfrosted, “bites,” and “crunchy poppers.”
The Pop (T)Art Gallery Experience offers a unique way to celebrate the legacy of Pop-Tarts and the influence of pop art on popular culture. It showcases the creativity and innovation that can come from combining food and art in unexpected ways, inviting visitors to participate in the artistic process and explore the connections between food, art, and nostalgia. As we commemorate 60 years of this iconic breakfast pastry, we are reminded of the power of creativity to transform the ordinary into something truly extraordinary.