Willy Wonka with a wicked sense of humor, artist Paul McCarthy is bringing his provocative chocolate factory to Los Angeles’ Performance Art Museum (PAM) before it opens in January 2027.
McCarthy’s Chocolate Factory, which will benefit the museum, transforms its industrial Chinatown warehouse into a functional chocolate factory. The installation will run Nov. 20 through Dec. 26. The chocolate factory previously visited New York and Paris, but as McCarthy said in a statement, it looks different each time as the exhibition space changes.
Museum workers will cast hundreds of McCarthy’s chocolate sculptures “Santa with Tree Plug” and “Tree Plug” each day, gradually accumulating throughout the space. McCarthy’s chocolate factory will partner with Beverly Hills chocolatier andSons for the installation.
Credit: Photo by Etienne Potter. Courtesy Paul McCarthy and Hauser & WirthMcCarthy is a contemporary L.A. artist known for working across mediums, including performance, photography, film, sculpture, drawing, painting and food. His chocolate sculptures reference the upcoming holiday season and explore themes of spectacle, desire and commerce. McCarthy has used this same image of Santa Claus in his previous installations, as well as the Plug to represent the Christmas tree and sexual reference.
Previous iterations of the chocolate factory took place at Maccarone Gallery in New York in 2007, and later, at Monnaie de Paris, at the French mint in 2014. His work has been polarizing, as he was accosted and his sculpture “Tree” was vandalized in Paris before he took it down after only 48 hours, according to The Independent. This led to a protest of artists and even the French president at the time, François Hollande, speaking out in support of his work, according to Hyperallergic.
Credit: Photo by Etienne Potter. Courtesy Paul McCarthy and Hauser & WirthThe latest factory space in L.A. at PAM will introduce the museum’s programming and purpose, highlighting performance art of all kinds, to Angelenos.
“What better way to preview the museum’s new home than with this special project expanding what performance can be?” PAM Director Samuel Vasquez said in a statement. “We’re honored to host Chocolate Factory as a special fundraiser on the eve of the museum’s opening and to benefit our inaugural programming.”
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