Hospitality Design - December 2016 - 67

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adam siegel
By Alissa Ponchione
Photography by Adam Siegel

1. The 28-foot-wide
"Atlas Moth" mural is
one of 24 custom pieces
Siegel provided for the
five separate spaces at
the Progression by the
Alinea Group.
2. At the Progression,
"Under the Midnight
Sun" depicted a
Japanese couple
embracing on one wall,
while two dogs "Duke"
and "Zeus" stand guard
on the other.
3. A series of 12
photographs of nude
women holding black
and white images
marked the walls in the
pop-up's white room.

CREATIVE GOURMET
A Chicago artist takes on hospitality

When chef Jean Joho approached Adam Siegel at one of his exhibitions
in Chicago, it was as a longtime fan and collector of the well-established
abstract painter and photographer's work. That meeting led to Joho
commissioning two large-scale black and white paintings from Siegel's
Kimono series for the chef's redesigned Chicago restaurant, Everest.
The collaboration took place in 2007, and even though it piqued
Siegel's interest in hospitality, he hadn't dabbled again in restaurants
until earlier this year. Taking a chance, he reached out to Alinea
Group founders Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas to propose they
work together. Kokonas had previously purchased his art, and a few
of Siegel's friends had suggested he would be a good fit for them. They
were right: His 8-by-5-foot "Boar's Head" painting welcomes guests to
the duo's fourth restaurant Roister in Chicago, which opened in April.

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That same month, Alinea Group launched the Progression, an
experimental pop-up that covered five separate spaces in Chicago's
former Moto restaurant building, where Siegel enriched guests'
culinary journey with 24 custom works created in just under three
weeks. "My idea was to set up this tension with the body, to awaken
the senses," he says. "The chef was going to take care of their palette. I
wanted to do the same thing visually."
In the white room, for instance, he hung 12 large-scale photographs
that feature nude women holding black and white photos of
architecture or nature above the tables. "It's like having a third party
to your dinner," says Siegel. "Historically, in hospitality you don't see
nudes. My vision was to poke a hole in the assumption that it was
wrong. It's not ironic. It's not supposed to be erotic. It's poetic."
Two 28-foot-wide mixed media murals "Atlas Moth" and "Love
Under the Midnight Sun"-which depicts a couple in repose-played
off each other in the green grass-clad main dining room, while
on the two end walls, dog paintings "Zeus" and "Duke" acted "like
lions guarding the entrance," he says. And in a third room, a trio of
paintings, including a blue wolf, a hovering planet, and an embracing
Japanese couple, signaled a subtle, knowing relationship. The works
were either temporary like the murals, have been sold, or are now
part of his current exhibition at the city's Golden Triangle antique
furniture store.
It's these compelling pieces in restaurant spaces, and even
healthcare projects, that Siegel says allow him to "come up with
something that is more exciting, more relevant, more powerful, and
more enduring than what I have ever imagined." hd
ad am si egel.com

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Hospitality Design - December 2016

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