Faces appear all around us, even when they are not really there. At breakfast, you might spot a pair of eyes and a laughing mouth in your toast. Later, on the road, the headlights of the car behind you seem to scowl. This is all part of a phenomenon called ‘pareidolia’. Our brains are wired to look for familiar patterns and shapes; they need little more than two dots and a line to decide that something is looking back at us.

At the LAM museum’s Tasty Faces exhibition, artists from all over the world serve up a feast of faces and figures in food-themed art. You’ll find works by Robert Roest, Jacqueline de Jong, Matthew Day Jackson, Janice McNab, Amedeo Polazzo, Jake & Dinos Chapman and many others.

But not all food-inspired portraits at the LAM museum can be taken at face value. Artist Itamar Gilboa spent a whole year keeping track of everything he ate and drank, producing an astonishing installation of 8,000 porcelain objects—an intimate self-portrait. Erik Klein Wolterink’s life-size photograph of a kitchen, with every cupboard and drawer laid bare, feels just as personal. The work reveals personality in the smallest details, from the products on the shelves to the way the dishwasher is loaded. Show me your kitchen, and I’ll tell you who you are!

You’ll even find portraits made of food at the LAM museum, including two coffee-powder portraits by Michiel van Nieuwkerk and a self-portrait sculpture by Tom Friedman made from sugar cubes. Martijntje Cornelia created a life-size sculpture of herself from candyfloss.

With its international art collection dedicated to food and consumption, the LAM museum on the Keukenhof Estate in Lisse offers fresh perspectives on everyday objects. Unique to the museum are the Viewing Coaches, who bring each work of art to life by offering visitors personalised viewing tips.