LACMA's Alexander Calder Erewhon Smoothie Is What the Art World Deserves
The artist’s mobile outside the LA museum is the inspiration for a new drink à la Hailey Bieber, but in concrete gray with blobs of Calderesque colors.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has unveiled plans to make the Erewhon pop-up cafe a permanent fixture in its new David Geffen Galleries. Located beneath Peter Zumthor's sprawling, disorienting structure, the Erewhon café will face the restored Alexander Calder fountain, "Three Quintains (Hello Girls)" (1964). This mobile sculpture also inspired a new pre-distressed apparel collection and a signature LACMA smoothie, made from organic mango, mandarin, pineapple, strawberry, and lion's mane.
The gray beverage's appearance mirrors the concrete of Zumthor's design, but with unconventional colors resembling Calder's mobile. Elizabeth Wiatt, senior vice president of strategic partnerships at LACMA, sees this integration as a harmonious synergy between two brands deeply rooted in Los Angeles culture. However, Erewhon, once a health-conscious "premium" grocery chain, has become synonymous with a status-centric idea of LA, offering adaptogenic cocktails, celebrity-collaboration smoothies, and unusual items like a $12 cup of "Sacred Water."
The museum's Erewhon partnership reflects the current world where overpaying for indulgences is normalized, even in a setting meant to promote community and shared experiences.
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