PHOTOS BY KRISTY GRAVER

Any chef will tell you cooking is a creative outlet. A new exhibition at Brew House Arts on the South Side celebrates food through drawings, paintings, sculptures and the written word.

Buttery Spread, which runs through Dec. 30 at 711 S. 21st St., is a whimsical collection of works from 11 makers. After perusing the gallery, you can feed your head in the library, a lounge area filled with more than 50 publications, from cookbooks and essay collections to independent magazines. 

Co-curator Emma Honcharski collaboratively publishes her own food-art periodical, Dinner Bell Mag, and is working toward her MBA and MA in Food Studies at Chatham University with a thesis focused on alternative spaces for food and togetherness. Chas Wagner, her Buttery Spread partner, runs The Print Party, a platform for zines.

“It’s important for people to think more expansively about how they engage with food and create with food in mind,” Honcharski says. “Publications are their own form of art and have a place in the art world.”

As a food writer whose office is decorated with snack-related tchotchkes and a large painting of a Mancini’s bread hoagie, I appreciate Buttery Spread.

I attended the opening with my daughter on Nov. 9. after we gorged ourselves on Bloomfield’s legendary Tessaro’s burgers  (which, in my opinion, are gastronomic masterpieces). The exhibition served as a social aperitif.

The exhibition is free to attend and open to the public from 2 to 7 p.m. Thursday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Private tours also are available.

On Dec. 16, from 1 to 3 p.m., the gallery will host Sugar Cubes: A Three Course Tea Ritual by artists Laurie Trok and Laura Riviere. Participants will be seated at banquet tables during the sensory experience, which, in addition to tea, features a pescatarian menu. Tickets are available online. 

“Food has this really powerful capacity to connect people through ideology or sharing a meal together,” Honcharski says. 

Go nourish your body … and soul.