Photo Gallery: Eat The Art

Food writer turned conceptual artist Jennifer Rubell creates whimsical culinary installations using food as an integral art medium. Whether it's padding a room with 1,600 cones of pink cotton candy, hanging 1,521 doughnuts in a grid formation at the perfect tilt or presenting guests with 2,ooo lbs. of BBQ ribs, Rubell's large-scale interactive installations are fascinating food art. The best part: guests are encouraged eat the art during the installation.

The New York-based artist, and daughter of acclaimed Miami art collectors Don and Mera Rubell, started off by catering her parents' annual Art Basel Miami Beach breakfast. From there, she began to put her provocative spin on catering at different arts museums and fairs, teaming up with Mario Batali at the Brooklyn Museum last year for an installation that included a lot of cooked meats and cheeses dripping from the ceiling. These installations examine social interaction around food within the art world, and have attracted celebrity guests from David Byrne to Chloe Sevigny to Larry Gagosian.

Rubell is back in Miami this week for the annual Basel throwdown, and what's sure to be a memorable series of breakfasts that will apparently involve a lot of yogurt. If you can't make the trip, this photo gallery will give you an idea of what you'll be missing.

Jennifer Rubell's annual breakfast installation, "Incubation," is taking place in Miami at the Rubell Family Collection starting Wednesday, November 30 from 9 am to 12 pm and will run every morning through Sunday, December 4.

Photo Gallery: Eat The Art

Padded Cell, Performa, New York City, 2010

Rubell exhibited 1,800 pink cotton candy cones in an 8' x 16' freestanding cell. Guests enjoyed ripping the cotton candy off the walls and eating it.

 

Icons, The Brooklyn Museum, New York, 2010

Rubell presented giant roasts of rabbit, turkey, beef and pig, served whole, at an exhibition held at the annual Brooklyn Ball. Guests were encouraged to carve their own meat. 

Icons, The Brooklyn Musuem, New York, 2010

One hundred and fifty roasted rabbits were served, chopped up in a lively display by Rubell's buddy Mario Batali.

Icons, The Brooklyn Museum, New York, 2010

Guests also enjoyed crackers with cheese dripping down from seven identical casts of Rubell's head in Fontina cheese suspended from the ceiling. Heat guns were strapped to each, slowly melting the heads onto the crackers below. 

Creation, Performa, New York, 2009

Before she melted fontina from a ceiling, Rubell showered 2,000 lbs. of ribs with honey dripping from traps suspended above the meat.

Creation, Performa, New York, 2009

Chocolatier Jacques Torres was commissioned to create chocolate replicas of Jeff Koons' Rabbit sculpture. Guests were presented with hammers to break down the sculptures and eat them. 

The de Pury Diptych, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2010

Phillips and Michaela de Pury commissioned Rubell to create an interactive food installation to celebrate their union. Guests entered the Saatchi Gallery to find a mammoth bed of ice with closed oysters ready to be shucked.

Old-Fashioned, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, 2010 & Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2010

Rubell hung 1,521 old-fashion style Dunkin' Donuts on a freestanding wall, free for the taking by those attending the installation. Dunking was optional.

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