The Boise Art Museum is exhibiting Julie Green's "The Last Supper," a collection of nearly 1,000 hand-painted blue-and-white ceramic plates depicting the final meal requests of death row inmates. The project, which Green began in 2000 after reading a newspaper clipping about an execution, spans more than two decades and is on display for the first time in its entirety in the U.S. The plates show comfort foods like fried chicken, tater tots, and honey buns, painted in cobalt blue reminiscent of 18th-century Danish porcelain.
This exhibition matters because it uses the universal language of food to humanize individuals facing capital punishment, forcing viewers to confront the scale and reality of the U.S. death penalty system. With over 1,600 executions since the 1970s and more than 2,100 people currently on death row, Green's work transforms intimate, often humble meal requests into a powerful indictment of state-sanctioned killing. The museum's immersive presentation encourages visitors to reflect on their own relationships with food and mortality, making a deeply political statement through accessible, everyday objects.