Review: 5-year-old Big Macs as sculpture? Animal chef Vinny Dotolo serves up a food-themed art feast

Curated by Vinny Dotolo, the chef behind Animal and other restaurants, “Please Have Enough Acid in the Dish!” is a group show with 37 artists’ works dealing with food. The exhibition at M+B is a jaunt, despite a clunky title and the awkward installation.

Fruit is a perennially popular subject, represented here in lovely, straightforward sculptures by Nevine Mahmoud (peach) and Shio Kusaka (watermelon). You’ll also see a child-like drawing by Jonas Wood and a how-to video for a papaya facial by Ana Prvacki.

Less expected is a preponderance of McDonald’s hamburgers in works by Charles Ray, Harold Ancart and Matthew Brandt. Brandt gives us the real thing: Big Macs from 2011 and this year encased in Plexiglas boxes so we can compare the decay. It’s yucky and fascinating.

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Candice Lin’s “Mushroom Study” is a typically off-kilter, delicately beautiful ceramic support for a lacy mushroom, blurring the line between natural and handmade.

Joel Kyack sends up fine dining with a sculpture of an avant-garde dinner plate complete with a condom full of walnuts, “artisanal painted rag” and “hand-carved foam beans.”

Sean Raspet bridges the gap between art and food, offering five different artificially flavored waters for visitors to sample in the gallery. One of them tasted like rotten grape soda, but most were pleasant, favoring various herbal, spice and floral notes. But don’t take my word for it: Write your own review on survey sheets hanging on the wall nearby.

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M+B, 612 N. Almont Drive, West Hollywood. Through Sept. 2; closed Sundays and Mondays. (310) 550-0050, www.mbart.com

Follow The Times’ arts team @culturemonster.

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