The Grand Hotel, Birmingham
What we did
Robert Angell Design International challenged Elegant Clutter to build an art scheme that offered a fresh and unexpected look at the hotel’s history. Our response was to deploy our consultancy team, Art Story, to forge friendships with Birmingham’s thriving art community.
The result was an expertly blended collection of over a thousand artworks that meander through the hotels many impressive spaces. Creations from our own Art Story studio hang happily alongside work from local artists. Together they pay homage to the city’s architecture and intriguing industrial past. This is hotel art at its most eclectic.
The reception features a striking artwork inspired by Birmingham’s Royal Ballet. The neon enhances the sense of movement and energy, setting a playful but sophisticated tone for the rest of the hotel. The presentation of the artwork in this hotel is bold and contemporary and invites the guest to wander off and see what’s around the next corner.
To enhance the guest experience further, a hundred page Art Guide, produced by Art Story, explains the story behind each piece.
American Express, Heathrow
What we did
American Express are renowned for offering exclusive access to airport lounges around the globe. They are places to unwind with complimentary refreshments but also offer a chance to explore some incredible artistic talent.
American Express worked with Elegant Clutter to commission and curate a collection of artwork for their guests pleasure. Our Art Story consultants researched and briefed suitable art partners to collaborate with to create the perfect ambience for the space.
The newest lounge at Heathrow Airport is adorned with works from renowned celebrity photographer Norman Parkinson, mixed media art from Stephen Marshall and architectural pencil drawings from Minty Sainsbury. A plaque explaining each piece includes a QR code that directs the customer to a website with the artists biography.
To complete the collection, our own studio created artworks celebrating the many facets of London, old and new. A hand-embroidered interpretation of the London Underground and an Elton John likeness are designed to capture the traveller’s attention. This is a project where art offers a window into a different reality and an escape from the otherwise mundane.
Hard Rock Hotel, Budapest
What we did
Elegant Clutter’s Art Story team worked directly with the Hard Rock Hotel brand in the US to create an art collection inspired by moments that rocked the city. By combining our in house fabrication with art consultancy we created a heady mix of heritage and rock & roll. Full to the brim with a riot of colour and personality.
‘The Beat’ feature piece greets guests to the building and shows how branding can become artwork. Created in brass, it was inspired by sound waves on a radial equalizer. ‘Firework’ is a reminder of the time Katy Perry filmed her infamous video on the streets of Budapest. Continuing the neon theme is the striking ‘Love Will Tear us Apart’ artwork inspired by the Joy Division classic.
In the Rock Star Suite is ‘Rubik Rewired’, a homage to the Hungarian inventor Ernő Rubik, with its frame made of Rubik’s cubes. It’s also home to an original painting by Anton Molnar, a widely exhibited Hungarian artist commissioned by Art Story in celebration of guitar players everywhere.
The artwork, inside and out, for Hard Rock Hotel Budapest is the result of months of dedicated research. Each artwork tells a story of what has been before, while inspiring the guest to be the rock star of their own life.
Lucia, Harrogate
What we did
The client for the sumptuous Lucia Restaurant and Wine Bar presented a very challenging artwork brief. They wanted to develop the interior scheme of their third restaurant to new levels whilst staying faithful to the established branding. The designers, Studio Two, saw the art execution as integral to this strategy.
An organic and fluid approach enabled Elegant Clutter’s artists to explore the art direction alongside the interior designer. The result was a distinctive collection of unique art to adorn both walls and ceilings. The restaurant art adds to the guests feeling of being cosseted in a world of elegant fabrics, finishes and textures.
Carefully considered LED up-lighting and metallic papers add extra luxury and sophistication to the exquisitely detailed imagery. Advertised as a venue to celebrate food, wine and friends, some added Italian exuberance is served, courtesy of the art.
Hilton, Frankfurt
What we did
The designers at Hilton Worldwide were looking for an art consultant who wouldn’t be constrained by convention. Elegant Clutter deployed their Art Story team to put together an irreverent and vibrant art collection for Hilton, Frankfurt.
The brief was to create stimulating and surprising meeting rooms using Frankfurt’s nickname of ‘Mainhattan’ as the inspiration. Our art consultants were given the freedom to take this brief wherever they wanted.
The team blended pop art with surrealism. They employed some lateral thinking and deployed their audacity. The result is an energizing and quirky environment that sets the hotels meeting spaces apart.
The client was so pleased with the result that the ideas were allowed to spill out of the meeting rooms into other areas of the hotel.
Norman Parkinson
Norman Parkinson
Celebrated English portrait and fashion photographer, Norman Parkinson, CBE (21 April 1913 – 15 February 1990) was renowned for his easy and relaxed style. His work revolutionised British fashion photography, as he moved the craft out of the studio and into outdoor settings.
He constantly reinvented himself over seven decades, making himself a household name thanks to his front covers for Vogue and Harpers Bazaar. Norman focused his lense on the zeitgeist, shooting stars of the moment. His subjects included Audrey Hepburn, The Beatles and Jerry Hall and he continues to be celebrated for his natural spontaneity and his own art of storytelling.
He first became an official royal photographer in 1969, taking photographs for Princess Anne’s 19th birthday. He continued with many other royal portraits, including official portraits of Queen Elizabeth for her 75th birthday.
Norman received many honors during his life including the Royal Photographic Society’s Progress Medal, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Society of Magazine Photographers, a Google Doodle, and a British postage stamp.
The Studio
The Studio
The Art Story Studio is a collection of artists with backgrounds ranging from fabric design to sculpture and everything in between. By imaginatively blending these techniques, they are able to create altogether new categories of art-making.
At the Studios heart is a team of talented fine artists, graphic designers and mixed media specialists. Collectively, they have a diverse understanding of materiality and how these materials can be combined to make something unique. A fusion of styles from past and present are often adopted to transform a traditional idea into something unexpected.
The team see the final presentation as integral to the art. They take pride in developing imaginative ways in which an artwork can be produced & framed. Experimentation and sampling are key to the creative process. The secret is to start with the idea and then work together to find a way to make it a reality. In this way, The Art Story Studio believe that when it comes to art, anything is possible.
Steven Marshall
Steven Marshall
British contemporary artist, Steven Marshall graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Wolverhampton Fine Art Polytechnic in 1989.
Focusing on dynamic scenes of the build environment, Steven’s approach is an archetypal multi-media one. His work has a rich depth as, with the use of clever layering, he seamlessly blends his painting style with cool non-coloured glass surfaces. Steven’s pieces offer an interactive element in the way that the distinctive figures play with the ambient light.
Steven first exhibited publicly in London in 1990 and since then his work has been seen in myriad places in the capital, including Christies and The Royal Academy. As the recipient of many awards, his art has featured extensively in collections at financial institutions and event venues across the UK.
Steven is currently represented by TAG Fine Arts in Islington.
Martina Nehrling
Martina Nehrling
Martina Nehrling is a Chicago-based artist who received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MFA from the University of Chicago. She has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Lake Forest College, and for the Associated Colleges of the Midwest Chicago Arts Program. She has been awarded grants by the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Illinois Arts Council, and has presented her work at the Art Institute of Chicago Artists Connect Lecture Series. Kingston, New York and her home town of Indianapolis, Indiana feature her work in their city public art installations. Her work is exhibited internationally and part of many public and private collections.
Dave Buonaguidi
Dave Buonaguidi
Iconic Hackney-based screen printer Dave Buonaguidi made his career in advertising before transitioning to being a full time artist. Known for his use of bright prink letterform and tongue in cheek statements. Dave loves to make art work that causes a stir. Often working with found images and materials Dave experiments with the practice of screen printing to push the boundaries of what it is and can be. Past examples include printing with pheromones, sprinkles, printing onto copper plates and just about anything else he can find, showing the investigative approach he takes to his printing practice.
‘Being creative is a wonderful curse. I mean that in the most positive sense. Actually, I’m being dramatic; it’s not a curse at all. It’s a calling’
A prolific artist, each screen print is a combination of visual and verbal language that resonate his past career and interest in propaganda and rebel posters. In 2003 he created the iconic MAKE TEA NOT WAR poster for the anti-war march. It now is part of the collection at the V&A and hangs in the Trento museum of modern art.
Since then Dave has continued to use screen print to push the boundaries of his creativity and respond to cultural subjects and events in almost real time, as if a publisher going to print. Most recently he created a series of Keep Yer Chin up prints in response to the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic.
You Might Also Be Interested In…
-
-
Telling Stories with Outdoor Art May 10,2021
-
International Women’s Day March 8,2021
-
Harry’s Art Story March 4,2021
-
Art Story Student Open February 17,2021
