Sabor y Arte: Exploring Mexican Heritage through Food and Art

Alberto Aguilar, Zach Steen, and Lesley A. Wolff

Dec 02, 2023

12:00pm–1:30pm

At the Newberry – Ruggles Hall

In this delicious event, we’ll explore the connections between food, art, and identity.

This program will be held in-person at the Newberry.

Share a meal while discussing how Mexican heritage is expressed through food, both on the table and in visual art. This program will focus on foods frequently depicted in 20th-century Mexican artworks, such as mole, watermelon, and corn, and will encourage conversation about the connections between food, art, and identity.

Menu
Salad
Pollo en Mole
Mexican Style Rice
Refried Beans
Poblano Veggie Mix
Chips & Molcajete Salsa
Corn tortillas
Beverages: Agua de Sandia and Horchata

Artist Alberto Aguilar, chef Zach Steen, and art historian Lesley Wolff will explore the social and political stakes of the visuality of Mexican food in a nation whose celebrated cuisine has been inscribed as Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.
Speaker

Alberto Aguilar is a Chicago-based artist whose work has been exhibited at the National Museum of Mexican Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Queens Museum, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, and Art Institute of Chicago. He teaches at Harold Washington College.

Zach Steen, once an intern at Rick Bayless’ Frontera Grill and now its Culinary Director, Chef Zach Steen has been a Chicago back-of-house mainstay for the last 16 years. After spending 4 years at Frontera back in 2009, Chef Steen traveled and worked in the Caribbean and Central America before returning to Chicago to Sous-chef at Brindelle and the Blanchard before his return to work with Chef Rick Bayless at Topolobampo (one Michelin star). At Topolo, Chef Steen rose from sous chef to chef de cuisine, leading the team to the coveted Outstanding Restaurant James Beard Award in 2017.

As Culinary Director, Zach has led the way since at Bayless’ restaurants, pioneering new methods of equitable management and efficient operating procedures to pave the way towards a better future for restaurant culture. Even in the throws of the Pandemic, Chef Steen worked closely with Chef Bayless to keep his classic Chicago restaurants afloat and continuously creative despite the circumstances.

Lesley A. Wolff, assistant professor of art and design specializing in global modern and contemporary art history and museum studies at the University of Tampa, studies the visual cultures of the Americas, with particular emphasis on visuality, decoloniality, and foodways. As a Latinx and Latin American art specialist, her research and teaching extends beyond modern and contemporary spheres to also consider the role of colonial and pre-1492 arts of the hemisphere and the ways in which these images, objects, and rituals dialogue with the Américas today. Dr. Wolff is an active curator, researcher, and teacher, working with museums and academic institutions across the country.
Cost and Registration

This program is free and open to all, but space is limited and only those who register in advance will be admitted.

Registration opens November 1.
Register Now : https://reg.learningstream.com/reg/event_page.aspx?ek=0057-0014-384fe120faa04af0beadabb4b7213a8c

Official Website

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Tags: Alberto Aguilar, Chicago, Lesley A. Wolff, Near Norths Side, Newberry Library, Sabor y Arte: Exploring Mexican Heritage through Food and Art, Zach Steen