To be an artist or any art world player provides an individual much flexibility in terms of interest and skills, stretching their work, their influence and their thoughts to the rest of the Contemporary Arts realm. As a result, some even moonlight into a different career path, for instance, the most popular choice of all as a restaurateur. For an art collector or dealer, it could be an opportunity to invest into a different project while for an artist it could be to extend their artistic philosophie onto a plate to literally give visitors “food for thought”. Here, TAG has rounded up 6 restaurants owned and run by art world people from artists, dealers to art collectors, cooking up a variety of dishes from British, Thai, Korean to Japanese food.
1. Pharmacy 2
Who: YBA rebel Damien Hirst and Mark Hix
Where: At Hirst’s new gallery Newport Street Gallery, London
Website: www.pharmacyrestaurant.com
This man needs no introduction after having made a huge impact in the arts with his halved cows and sheep, his child-like spin paintings, and of course his pills and pharmacy cabinets. The latter were the inspiration for his newest restaurant Pharmacy 2, in which buddy Mark Hix is the chef. The interior is an immersive experience with detailed images of capsules and pills scattered on the sofa, chairs and the bar with a neon sign hung over it flashing “prescriptions”.
Ready to pick your poison?
2. Kappo Masa
Who: Mega-dealer Larry Gagosian
Where: Madison Avenue, New York
Website: www.kappomasanyc.com
Launched towards the end of 2014, the restaurant was conceived by powerful art dealer Larry Gagosian and acclaimed chef Masa Takayama. According to food critics, this new venture was a big flop due to its overpriced sushi, rating Kappo Masa zero stars by The New York Times.
Expensive, but appealing, still:
Located in the basement of Gagosian’s Madison avenue gallery, the space’s decor is luxurious with its golden lit interior, leather seating, and teak tables attracting only New York’s elite or FOL (friends of Larry).
3. Tramshed, Hix Soho, Hixter City…
Who: Mark Hix
Where: Multiple locations in London
Website: www.hixrestaurants.co.uk
Mark Hix is a celebrated British chef and art collector who has developed a restaurant empire throughout the city of London. Not only that, but Hix is also close friends with YBA artists Tracy Emin and Damien Hirst, all thanks to his party days in Shoreditch in the 1990s. Since then, London’s most eminent restaurateur has amassed a distinctive collection of works from his YBA friends by exchanging food for art. A majority of these works can be found across his eight restaurants notably Tramshed, which houses the imposing artwork “Cock and Bull” in the centre of the restaurant (see above).
4. Osteria Francescana (Named “The best eatery on the planet”!)
Who: Massimo Bottura
Where: Modena, Italy
Website: www.osteriafrancescana.it
Famed master chef Massimo Bottura is a passionate art collector, possessing a world-class collection of contemporary art, encompassing the art market’s favourites such as the incomparable Maurizio Cattelan, Gavin Turk, and Olafur Eliasson among others. The dishes he creates at his Italian Michelin-star restaurant Osteria Francescana are fuelled by the art he has collected over the years, turning his plates into veritable works of art themselves: bold, inventive, and explosive in taste as well as colour.
Famed master chef Massimo Bottura is a passionate art collector, possessing a world-class collection of contemporary art, encompassing the art market’s favourites such as the incomparable Maurizio Cattelan, Gavin Turk, and Olafur Eliasson among others. The dishes he creates at his Italian Michelin-star restaurant Osteria Francescana are fuelled by the art he has collected over the years, turning his plates into veritable works of art themselves: bold, inventive, and explosive in taste as well as colour.
5. Sook
Who: Mina Park
Where: Hong Kong
Website: www.sook.hk
Full time lawyer-turned-entrepreneur Mina Park is a skilled chef and founder of the private kitchen and pop up dining concept, Sook, where she concocts innovative Korean street-style food. Besides being entrepreneurial with a seasoned palate, she also has an adept eye for art. Park is indeed a young art collector and often hangs out with the Hong Kong art crowd for a little art and a little nosh.
6. La Colonie
Who: Kader Attia
Where: Paris, France
Acclaimed artist Kader Attia has recently launched a new hybrid restaurant art space in Paris’ 10th arrondissement last week. Titled “La Colonie” this new venture is an open space for the visual and performing arts as well as critical thinking, debate, and cultural activism.
Photos via: restaurants’ website and Instagram, observatoire-art-contemporain.com, Bloomberg, nytimes, theworlds50best.com, the-talks.com, edgeofarabia, Business Insider, tastingtable
TAG has rounded up 6 restaurants owned and run by art world people from artists, dealers to art coll...
Art Girls Jungle
03 Nov 2016
