In mid February 2026, Greta Fay, intern at Olivier Cornet Gallery, wrote about Vicky Smith's Biscuit Crumbs at the Bottom of Your Bag, oil and acrylic on canvas, 61x76.5cm available to purchase for 2835 euro. 

In 2024, Vicky Smith created Biscuit Crumbs at the Bottom of Your Bag, an oil and acrylic painting on canvas, measuring 61 x 76.5 cm. The work is currently held in storage at the Olivier Cornet Gallery, having previously been shown in the summer group exhibition Pink is My Colour, which

ran at the gallery from 9 June to 25 August 2024.

Curated by Olivier Cornet, the exhibition brought together gallery artists and invited practitioners to explore the cultural, historical, and symbolic meanings of the colour pink. Once considered a masculine shade and later socially coded as feminine, pink has undergone significant shifts in

perception across centuries. Today, it carries diverse associations ranging from tenderness and vulnerability to pleasure, strength, and emotional resonance. Rather than prescribing a single interpretation, the exhibition encouraged viewers to reflect on how colour shapes perception and

how language and cultural memory influence the way artworks are experienced. 

The title is playful and evokes something deeply human. Everyone can relate to finding biscuit crumbs at the bottom of a bag. Smith elevates this small, easily overlooked detail into a humorous yet intimate observation.

The painting presents a striking contrast to the way handbags are often portrayed in social media, film, and television as symbols of luxury and femininity. Here, the bag appears as a realistic, overfilled everyday object containing practical belongings as well as food, offering a tangible reflection of daily life. The handbag is open, and the perspective reveals its contents directly to the viewer, creating immediacy and a quiet sense of familiarity.

Looking more closely, the work invites reflection on why the handbag has become so strongly associated with women. In contemplating this, one recognizes the poetic symbolism in the act of carrying: women hold not only material objects but also the responsibilities and connections that shape everyday life. This is echoed beautifully in Maira Kalman’s reflection from 'Women Holding Things':

“What do women hold? The home and the family. And the children and the food. The friendships. The work. The work of the world. And the work of being human. The memories. And the troubles and the sorrows and the triumphs. And the love.”

This resonates strongly with Smith’s wider artistic practice, which explores her identity as a woman and mother, and the ways domestic life, care, and family shape experience. Within the context of Pink is My Colour, the work quietly engages with ideas of femininity and emotional depth, demonstrating how subjects often perceived as gentle or ordinary can carry significant conceptual weight.

In its colors and painterly style, the work feels light, generous, and welcoming. Despite focusing on an ordinary object, the painting creates a sense of warmth and approachability, almost as if the  viewer is being introduced to the absent owner through the traces of her daily life.

Through pattern, color, and composition, Smith produces a work that is humorous, relatable, and quietly profound. Biscuit Crumbs at the Bottom of Your Bag celebrates the poetry of the everyday and encourages viewers to recognize the emotional and human narratives contained within seemingly mundane objects, while situating these observations within a broader feminist perspective on womanhood, care, and domestic life.

Greta Fay, February 2026