The new Broad museum in Los Angeles hasn’t even opened yet, but it’s already transforming the city’s downtown area into a vibrant cultural destination.

The buzz around the institution has encouraged Otium, the restaurant adjacent to mega-collector Eli Broad’s new $140 million private museum, to commission a large-scale mural by Damien Hirst.

The artwork, titled Isolated Elements (2015), is currently being installed as construction of the new restaurant nears completion.

The work is based on Hirst’s 1991 sculpture Isolated Elements Swimming in the Same Direction for the Purpose of Understanding, a wall-mounted cabinet filled with fish preserved in formaldehyde.

The restaurant is adjacent to the Broad museum.
Photo: Cheryl A. Guerrero via Los Angeles Times

“I’ve always been a great admirer of Damien Hirst’s work, so we were thrilled when we had the opportunity to include a mural of his as part of the restaurant’s design,” Timothy Hollingsworth, co-owner of  Otium, told the Los Angeles Times.

The collaboration was facilitated by Joanne Heyler, founding director of the Broad. She worked with the artist and the restaurant to bring the project to fruition.

Damien Hirst’s Pharmacy Restaurant & Bar, London
Photo: Arrested Motion

This isn’t Hirst’s first experience in the gastronomy industry. The artist was co-owner of Pharmacy, a highly successful, award winning restaurant and celebrity hotspot which he operated in London between 1998 and 2003. The interior was designed entirely by Hirst and featured several major works by the artist.

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