The Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles is hosting an art exhibition dedicated to two of Los Angeles’ most renowned culinary contributions – Sriracha and Tapatio. These hot sauces both originated in the City of Angels and continue to grow in popularity, signifying the proliferation of immigrant communities, as well as the cultural culinary shift in palette. 

Titled L.A. Heat: Taste Changing Condiments, the selected Los Angeles artists were welcome to interpret this theme and to take creative license on the topic. Gajin Fujita was one of 28 artists invited to participate and re-imagined the idea of the spicy condiment into one he knows very well: WASABI - the Japanese green paste made from ground wasabi root. (See the bottom image of wasabi being freshly ground.)

 To learn more about the exhibition and the artists, visit camla.org.

L.A. Heat: Taste Changing Condiments is on view through July 12, 2014.

IMAGE: (top) Gajin Fujita, L.A. Heat (Wasabi), 2014, spray paint, paint markers, gold leaf on wood panel, 10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm); (bottom) via shizuokasushi.com