SOUP, A Jewish Soup Exhibit, Will Debut On The Lower East Side
SOUP will celebrate soup and its cultural importance
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A slurpable new art exhibit opens in Manhattan this winter.
A new pop-up contemporary art show, SOUP, examines how food, particularly soup, functions as a powerful cultural connector, as a source of comfort, care, humor, ritual, and shared memory.
Curated and sponsored by kosher food company Manischewitz, the project aims to further prove how food and culture are intertwined. The February gallery opening at Artifact Projects (155 Suffolk St.) doubles as a brand activation for Manischewitz’s new homemade jarred soup line, which offers a range of traditional Ashkenazi Jewish soups (think chicken matzo ball soup and mushroom barley soup) in shelf-stable glass jars.
“We kept coming back to what soup actually represents in Jewish life: care, healing, gathering, memory, humor, and continuity,” said Shani Seidman, CMO of Kayco, Manischewitz’s parent company. “Soup isn’t just food. It’s often the first thing you’re given when you’re sick, the centerpiece of family tables, and one of the most enduring expressions of Jewish comfort and ritual.”
SOUP explores how food serves as a cultural connector: offering comfort, care, humor, ritual, and shared memory.
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Three photographers will be featured in the exhibit, with work that focuses on identity, intergenerational connections, and contemporary Jewish culture. Multidisciplinary artist And Weinsteininterdisciplinary artist Rosemarie Gleiserand commercial photographer Roman Ohad showcase work featuring interactions between food and family, food and culture, and food and home, with a major theme of being present at a communal table.
“By launching the SOUP exhibition alongside the new soup line, the brand is intentionally connecting product innovation with cultural storytelling, showing that heritage and progress can coexist,” said Seidman. “Manischewitz continues to see itself as a caretaker of collective memory, showing up at the table to nourish people physically, emotionally, and culturally.”
Unfortunately, soup will be not be served on site at the exhibit, but it’s within a few blocks of several established soup spaces should the craving hit – Katz’s Delicatessen is nearby for classic matzo ball soup, Ginger and Lemongrass is down the street for pho, and Ivan Ramen serves its own New York spin on Japanese ramen by a “Jewish guy from Long Island”, chef Ivan Orkin.
SOUP is meant to spark discussion and possibly cravings, and was designed as a fun, accessible entry point to food-focused art.
“We hope viewers walk away thinking about how food carries stories. Who taught them to cook, what dishes make them feel safe, what flavors remind them of home or family?” said Seidman. “Ideally, the exhibition sparks conversations about heritage, migration, intergenerational transmission, and how cultural identity evolves in contemporary life Rather than treat the soup launch purely as a product moment, we saw an opportunity to create a cultural conversation alongside the culinary one,” said Seidman. “Soup became the perfect metaphor because it’s humble, universal, and deeply emotional. Everyone has a soup story.”
How to Visit SOUP
SOUP will be open to the public from Friday, February 6 through Tuesday, February 10, 2026. Hours are Friday: 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., Saturday: 7 p.m. – 10 p.m., Sunday: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m, Monday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m, and Tuesday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Entrance to the exhibit is free to all. Art will sold on site.
