They say you can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs. The same holds true for Glenna Jennings and Jalisa Robinson’s collaborative art installation, The Price of Eggs, now on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland.
Their photo-based, socially engaged project is part of Ohio Now: State of Nature, a group exhibition co-organized by the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center, where it debuted in May 2025, and MOCA Cleveland, where it is on view through Aug. 2.
Jennings and Robinson — who first met as instructor and student, respectively, in a University of Dayton art course about food justice — cracked shells, separated yolks, and fried, scrambled and froze the eggs that serve as their subject matter.
“We focus on eggs as a critical assessment of our inequitable food system,” said Robinson ’17, who holds a bachelor’s degree in visual arts and is a worker-owner and board member at Dayton’s Gem City Market. “Eggs are a staple food across cultures and worldwide, and at the time we were creating the project, their prices were astronomical. It felt natural to use eggs as the focal point to spark conversations around food access and food justice.”
The installation features portrait, still life and documentary photography, as well as wallpaper and furniture design — all of which have direct ties to Dayton.
The custom wallpaper’s pattern is composed of 111 portraits of customers, supporters and member-owners of the Gem City Market, a community-owned, full-service grocery store in a designated food desert near downtown Dayton.
Most of the multicolored eggs used in the photographs were sourced from Irby’s Old School Farm in Trotwood, Ohio, one of Gem City Market’s local vendors.
The installation also highlights the community’s loss, resilience and renewal. Its tables and photo frames are made from reclaimed wood from the 2019 Memorial Day tornado outbreak in Dayton, which damaged nearly 3,000 homes and more than 200 businesses along its path.
“The aim is to symbolically regenerate a tragedy into something either useful or beautiful, and wood can serve those purposes. That way, the pieces also become a tribute to Dayton,” said Jennings, an associate professor of photography and social practice in the UD Department of Art and Design.
“The project’s focus on food also brings in elements of house and home, which is backgrounded by the racist practice of redlining. With materials coming from homes that were destroyed in the tornado, we embed the precarity of home ownership into the work itself,” she said.
This is Jennings’ first exhibition with a former student. She said she and Robinson share similar aesthetic sensibilities and were well-matched stylistically.
Robinson said Jennings’ course, Art and Social Practice, and the related Desert Kitchen Collective — a group dedicated to fighting hunger and promoting food justice — inspired her to not only create socially engaged art, but to also do the hands-on work needed to help sustain Gem City Market. She was equally influenced by her own lived experience of growing up in West Dayton and being directly impacted by the economic disparities in her community.
“Together, these experiences shaped both my artistic practice and my commitment to community work,” she said.
The Price of Eggs marks Robinson’s first art museum exhibition. She said collaborating with Jennings as a fellow artist, rather than their former teacher-student dynamic, was a “full-circle moment” for her.
“I felt deeply honored throughout the entire process,” Robinson said. “Glenna was always incredibly supportive of me as an undergraduate, inspiring me to fully pursue photography and challenge myself as an artist.
“We maintained our connection over the years, even becoming neighbors at one point. Gem City Market ultimately brought us even closer, as we bonded over our shared love for the market — which eventually led to the vision for The Price of Eggs.”
The photographers hope to expand their installation with new works in the future, with the goal of exhibiting it at additional venues.
“We haven’t ended hunger or food apartheid, and the price of eggs is still an issue, so we aim to keep going,” Jennings said.
Top photo: Glenna Jennings and Jalisa Robinson '17 in their installation, 'The Price of Eggs,' at the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center. Photo by Leigh Vukov '17.
Middle photo: Installation detail of 'How Do You Take Yours? (Curtis).'
