Cut Your Teeth: Wolvesmouth at SMMoA
15 - 26 Oct 2013
CUT YOUR TEETH: WOLVESMOUTH AT SMMOA
15 – 26 October 2013
SANTA MONICA, CA—The Santa Monica Museum of Art is pleased to present Cut Your Teeth: Wolvesmouth at SMMoA, a two-week residency with Craig Thornton, creator of underground dining experience Wolvesmouth. At the tail end of the fall equinox, Thornton and artist Matthew Bone will host exquisitely-calibrated culinary encounters in the Museum, a series of meals that explore the collision of food and art.
Wolvesmouth is not a restaurant but rather dining in its original, communal form. Thornton has operated Wolvesmouth out of his downtown Los Angeles loft for the last four years, and has quickly earned a reputation as a Zagat-rated, New Yorker-featured chef. He has replaced the traditional relationship between restauranteur and diner with an immersive dining and social experience. The typical Wolvesmouth meal consists of eight or more courses, with titles like “Wolves in the Snow” and “Fuck BP.” Diners are selected from a 10,000-plus waiting list based on questionnaires; moguls, artists, food enthusiasts, and librarians come together at Thornton’s egalitarian table. In a time of “simple food” trends, Thornton is known for his unapologetically visceral, often painterly plating aesthetic. That unique aesthetic sparked the collaboration between Thornton and Bone, a three-year long conversation around color theory that has moved from the plate to the walls to—culminating with the installation at SMMoA—the entire environment.
Given that Wolvesmouth is more culinary happening than supper club and Thornton is more artist than chef, Cut Your Teeth is the ultimate Wolvesmouth experience, an evening entirely created by Thornton and Bone. For each meal at SMMoA, guests will come together to dine in a darkly wooded den, a feast for the eyes and stomach alike. Inspired by the relationship between predator and prey, Thornton and Bone have transformed the Museum’s Main Gallery into an overgrown installation of organic, vegetal, and skeletal forms. Their work explores the harvest, reproduction, and the cycle of life and death, complete with canine teeth, fertile earth and flora, and taxidermied animals. The installation, combined with Thornton’s mythological culinary skills, will emphasize nature’s capacity to evoke the sublime, to give life and also take it away. In hosting Cut Your Teeth: Wolvesmouth at SMMoA, the Santa Monica Museum of Art underscores its own agility—as a contemporary kunsthalle it continuously favors creative invention over tradition.
Craig Thornton lives, cooks, and runs Wolvesmouth in Los Angeles, California.
Matthew Bone lives and works in Los Angeles. He has shown in group exhibitions at Lebasse Projects, Los Angeles; Timeline Gallery, San Pedro; Copro Gallery, Santa Monica; and London Miles Gallery, London. He has had solo exhibitions at Last Rites Gallery, New York (2012); La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles (2012); and Copro Gallery, Santa Monica (2010).
Cut Your Teeth: Wolvesmouth at SMMoA will host two seatings per night at 6:30 and 9:30 pm, October 16 through 19 and 22 through 25. Reservations cost $225 per guest and will go on sale at wolvesmouth.com/cutyourteeth on Friday, August 30 at 9 am. Throughout the residency, museum visitors will have the opportunity to explore the installation and watch Wolvesmouth prepare during regular hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 11 am to 6 pm. Visit smmoa.org/cut-your-teeth for details.
15 – 26 October 2013
SANTA MONICA, CA—The Santa Monica Museum of Art is pleased to present Cut Your Teeth: Wolvesmouth at SMMoA, a two-week residency with Craig Thornton, creator of underground dining experience Wolvesmouth. At the tail end of the fall equinox, Thornton and artist Matthew Bone will host exquisitely-calibrated culinary encounters in the Museum, a series of meals that explore the collision of food and art.
Wolvesmouth is not a restaurant but rather dining in its original, communal form. Thornton has operated Wolvesmouth out of his downtown Los Angeles loft for the last four years, and has quickly earned a reputation as a Zagat-rated, New Yorker-featured chef. He has replaced the traditional relationship between restauranteur and diner with an immersive dining and social experience. The typical Wolvesmouth meal consists of eight or more courses, with titles like “Wolves in the Snow” and “Fuck BP.” Diners are selected from a 10,000-plus waiting list based on questionnaires; moguls, artists, food enthusiasts, and librarians come together at Thornton’s egalitarian table. In a time of “simple food” trends, Thornton is known for his unapologetically visceral, often painterly plating aesthetic. That unique aesthetic sparked the collaboration between Thornton and Bone, a three-year long conversation around color theory that has moved from the plate to the walls to—culminating with the installation at SMMoA—the entire environment.
Given that Wolvesmouth is more culinary happening than supper club and Thornton is more artist than chef, Cut Your Teeth is the ultimate Wolvesmouth experience, an evening entirely created by Thornton and Bone. For each meal at SMMoA, guests will come together to dine in a darkly wooded den, a feast for the eyes and stomach alike. Inspired by the relationship between predator and prey, Thornton and Bone have transformed the Museum’s Main Gallery into an overgrown installation of organic, vegetal, and skeletal forms. Their work explores the harvest, reproduction, and the cycle of life and death, complete with canine teeth, fertile earth and flora, and taxidermied animals. The installation, combined with Thornton’s mythological culinary skills, will emphasize nature’s capacity to evoke the sublime, to give life and also take it away. In hosting Cut Your Teeth: Wolvesmouth at SMMoA, the Santa Monica Museum of Art underscores its own agility—as a contemporary kunsthalle it continuously favors creative invention over tradition.
Craig Thornton lives, cooks, and runs Wolvesmouth in Los Angeles, California.
Matthew Bone lives and works in Los Angeles. He has shown in group exhibitions at Lebasse Projects, Los Angeles; Timeline Gallery, San Pedro; Copro Gallery, Santa Monica; and London Miles Gallery, London. He has had solo exhibitions at Last Rites Gallery, New York (2012); La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles (2012); and Copro Gallery, Santa Monica (2010).
Cut Your Teeth: Wolvesmouth at SMMoA will host two seatings per night at 6:30 and 9:30 pm, October 16 through 19 and 22 through 25. Reservations cost $225 per guest and will go on sale at wolvesmouth.com/cutyourteeth on Friday, August 30 at 9 am. Throughout the residency, museum visitors will have the opportunity to explore the installation and watch Wolvesmouth prepare during regular hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 11 am to 6 pm. Visit smmoa.org/cut-your-teeth for details.