Year in Review: 2021 Additions to the Collection

William Holman Hunt

This painting by British artist William Holman Hunt depicts Jesus Christ as a young carpenter in his father’s workshop, stretching and giving many thanks to God after his day of labor. Holman Hunt was a devoted member of the Pre-Raphaelites, a group of artists, writers, and critics, whose function had been typically motivated by Christian themes and who considered art that must be exact and genuine to mother nature. These ideals occur vibrantly alive in Hunt’s painting, which is rendered with pretty much hallucinatory detail. The portray is amongst the artist’s most well known compositions and is now a single of the most important Pre-Raphaelite paintings in North America.

China

Produced throughout the Yongle period (1403–1424), the golden age of porcelain manufacture in China, this moon flask is an elegant adaptation of a condition prolonged well known in Western Asia. Cobalt pigments, imported from Iran, were applied to create the spacious, naturalistic arrangement of blossoming flowers that signifies a new fashion of porcelain decoration. The beautiful workmanship of the flask, along with the harmony of its type and decoration, replicate the basic strengths of China’s porcelain output in this period of time. Only a person other example of the identical dimension, good quality, and layout survives it is housed in the Ottoman royal selection in Istanbul, Turkey. The similarities between the two is effective recommend they may well have been a pair.

Marguerite Zorach

This textile work was created by Marguerite Thompson Zorach, a fashionable painter, textile artist, and graphic designer who, through her multimedia observe, advocated for the integration of artwork into everyday lifestyle. In this article, she utilised big stylized flowers, foliage, and shells surrounding the nude figure to accentuate the multisensory and multidimensional knowledge of the get the job done. Often broadly described as a rug, a perform like this could have been hung on the wall or employed on the flooring, reflecting both modernist creative expression as nicely as modern inside layout. This textile joins two landscape paintings by the artist in our selection and, through its subject matter and material composition, helps to broaden the story of 20th-century American modernism.

James VanDerZee

This photograph by James Van Der Zee captures the enjoyment of a 1924 Harlem parade arranged by Marcus Garvey, the Jamaican-born black nationalist who was instrumental to the emergence of Pan-Africanism. Van Der Zee was prolific in documenting the cultural scene and social existence of the Harlem Renaissance through the 1920s and 1930s. He photographed countless numbers of black persons from all walks of life—working-class and affluent topics, civic and political leaders, athletes and celebrities, and intelligentsia—mostly in the studio but also in documentary photographs, like this one particular, made in and around Harlem.

Jean-Claude Duplessis

This pair of mounted vases is part of the extended and visually prosperous tale of great creativeness, trade, and cultural trade among China and Europe. The porcelain entire body of each individual vase was built in China in the early several years of the 18th century, virtually unquestionably in the kilns at Jingdezhen. When they later on traveled to Paris, the vases ended up remodeled into really marketable European objects by the great French Rococo sculptor, designer, and goldsmith Jean-Claude Duplessis, who shortened the vessel’s tall necks and extra elaborately modeled gilt-bronze mounts. The addition of these objects to our collection reflects our ongoing growth of the narratives of cross-cultural dialogue and aesthetic trade.

All Instructions at After, 2018

Luiza Prado de Oliveira Martins

© 2018 Luiza Prado de Oliveira Martins. The online video higher than displays a person interacting with the web site.

All Directions at The moment is the 1st online-primarily based artwork to enter the museum assortment. This operate charts colonial and postcolonial histories of fertility, contraception, and reproductive command in Brazil by way of an animated graphic essay. Designed by artist and scholar Luiza Prado de Oliveira Martins, the internet site layers vividly colored, flashing graphic GIFs and provocative texts in endlessly various combos, earning every user working experience unique. This acquisition also contains a combined-media set up with a video demonstration of the interactive web page and wallpaper featuring the artist’s florid GIF graphics—including photos of the ayoowiri shrub and peacock flower, crops recognized to induce abortion that were utilised by enslaved Indigenous and African individuals to resist colonial management in excess of their bodies.

Mncane Nzuza

Skilled ceramist Mncane Nzuza, the maker of this pot, is celebrated for her skill her revolutionary creations are deeply valued in Zulu modern society and really sought following at property and overseas. Serving and sharing ceremonial beer, made with a sorghum malt, from an ukhamba pot is an integral and regular way to honor ancestors at communal celebrations. A member of Nzuza’s Zulu community commissioned this pot right from the artist for that reason. Historically, ukhamba pots have been manufactured by women, who develop the pots by hand applying a mix of coiling and slabs and scrape the vessels’ partitions to slender shells when the terracotta is leather-really hard. This ukhamba is a testament to the dynamic nature of the art form as Nzuza flattened and expanded the profile of a regular vessel and playfully adapted a traditional triangular diamond motif joined to historic Zulu patterns. This addition to our collection is part of our ongoing perform to emphasize personal contributions of creativeness and craftsmanship, specifically by woman artists and artists of colour.

Sarah Bernhardt

This sculpture, which doubles as a fully purposeful inkwell, is one particular of the couple of sculpted self-portraits created by a lady just before 1900. French actor—and artist—Sarah Bernhardt portrayed herself as a chimera, a mythological creature composed of disparate animal sections. Listed here her human head receives the human body of a lion together with a bat’s wings and a dragon-like tail. Woman chimera had usually been used by male artists of Bernhardt’s time in relationship to the strategy of the “femme fatale”—a seductive woman who lures men into dangerous circumstances. Bernhardt cleverly upends this misogynistic fantasy in the assistance of good self-fashioning, even ingenious self-marketing.

Valente Ngwenya Malangatana

Featured prominently in our 2020 exhibition Malangatana: Mozambique Contemporary, this painting is an critical case in point of Malangatana’s special portray style. Regarded for dense assemblies of figures, fantastical depictions of animals, human beings, and supernatural creatures, and a palette of higher-contrast shades, Malangatana’s perform embodies the new artistic vocabularies that emerged in Mozambique in the 1960s, in tandem with the wrestle for liberation from colonial rule. In Remaining Judgment, a black priest is surrounded by monstrous faces, possibly suggesting a reckoning. The portray, along with a suite of Malangatana’s drawings in our selection, constitute the greatest illustration of the artist’s get the job done outside the house of Mozambique.

Lilly Martin Spencer

This portray is by 19th-century American artist Lilly Martin Spencer, the only nationally acknowledged female style painter of her time. A accurate trailblazer, Spencer was capable to help her significant spouse and children with her art and turned a person of the most popular artists of the period in the United States. All through her profession, Spencer positioned women of all ages at the heart of her vivid portrayals of the everyday functions of white, urban, center-course households like her very own. In this function, she skillfully depicts a mom and kid (modeled by the artist and her son William Henry) participating in a nursery rhyme—a recreation celebrating their psychological bond when also hinting at the larger sized world that the boy will at some point sign up for. The composition has been well known considering that the 1850s by engravings and two painted copies, but this first function had been unlocated right until just lately, when it came to auction in 2019.


This extremely large and fine example of historic jewelry is a carnelian stone carved with a depiction of the Roman god Mars. Finest acknowledged as the god of war and frequently equated with the Greek god Ares, Mars was also venerated as a god of agriculture and vegetation and therefore connected with purifying the land, warding off disease, and defending crops, livestock, and the house. For the Romans, whose life centered on agricultural get the job done and military services assistance, Mars was one particular of the oldest and “most authentically Roman” of all of the deities of their pantheon. In this article, the determine of Mars is carved into the stone by the intaglio process. Intaglio, from the Italian phrase intagliare suggests “to engrave” or “cut into” and is a single of the two primary gem carving techniques invented in antiquity. It was often used for finger rings and sealing products, though this 1, because of to its significant dimension, was probably a pendant.


Faith Ringgold devoted this perform to the men who died while demonstrating towards deplorable problems at the Attica Correctional Facility in New York in 1971. She utilised vivid red, black, and green—colors derived from activist Marcus Garvey’s Black National Flag—to depict a map of the United States. The dates and other information on the map history notorious acts of violence that transpired in just every single state—such as race riots, witch hunts, presidential assassinations, lynchings, and wars versus Indigenous populations. When this operate was Ringgold’s most broadly dispersed political poster of the 1970s, the edition in our assortment was sourced straight from the artist’s archive and is a pristine example of this legendary impression.

Kukuli Velarde

Peruvian artist Kukuli Velarde generates ceramic and multimedia operates that equally rejoice Indigenous cultures and examine the consequences of colonialism. In her CORPUS collection, she reimagined Christian statues that are aspect of the Feast of Corpus Christi in Cusco as historical Andean deities. In this get the job done, she transforms the renowned statue of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception in Cusco’s cathedral, known as La Linda, into an historical Nasca goddess. The determine has the Virgin’s common halo and crescent moon along with an array of Nasca iconography. In this way, Velarde explores the dual identities that a lot of modern day Andeans may perhaps embrace.

Madhya Pradesh

This sculpture of Ganesha, the Hindu god of auspicious beginnings and remover of obstructions, is an extraordinarily energetic and elaborate portrayal of the elephant-headed god. Not only is he depicted joyfully dancing, which he, as his father Shiva, was acknowledged to like, but compared with quite a few portrayals of the dancing Ganesha, listed here is depicted with 20 arms—a more cosmic manifestation of the god. Each individual hand retains a different instrument, and all all-around him are musicians, attendants, and his mount, a rat. Carved in the round, the sculpture was very likely the moment put in its personal sub-shrine inside a larger temple advanced devoted to the god Shiva.

Hot Home Styles for 2022

Fireplace Jan22

Photos: SHUTTERSTOCK

In the very last several a long time, there has been a resurgence of 1990s and Y2K fashions (believe saggy mother denims, scrunchies, chunky white sneakers and — gulp — small-slung trousers) from the Gen Z set. And mainly because manner and dwelling style typically go hand-and-hand, the trend is spilling above into the decor world.

Yup, the ’90s and the early aughts are back again. If you need further more proof they are amazing all over again, just examine out what’s taking place on TikTok: bedrooms adorned in cheerful pastels, blowup household furniture and an abundance of fairy lights.

Some of the other traits from a few decades back generating the rounds right now are pleated lampshades — which Amanda Bock, proprietor of Pittsburgh-dependent 412 Structure Co., phone calls the comeback kid of the 12 months — and patterned wallpaper.

“It feels like just yesterday everyone was stripping the previous wallpaper from the ’90s in their properties for freshly painted partitions, and now ornate floral styles are all the rage,” Bock claims.

Couch Blue Jan22As for why these traits are back again, Bock relates it to longing for a simpler period (particularly in these pandemic situations) as effectively as the resurgence of the ’90s and ’00s throughout pop culture. Think about it: Ben Affleck and J-Lo are again with each other, “Saved By the Bell” has gotten a reboot and today’s teens are all about vintage Television set exhibits this sort of as “Friends.”

“It’s no surprise that we’d see factors of the ’90s creep into interiors as properly,” Bock states.

We requested nearby layout experts and beyond for their requires on the hottest household variations for 2022.

Couch Leather Jan22

Shots COURTESY BETSY WENTZ, High Point Market, SHUTTERSTOCK

Artwork Deco Is Everywhere you go — and So Are Fascinating Details  

At the drop Superior Stage Marketplace, the influential biannual furnishing industry trade show held in Significant Place, North Carolina, “Style Spotters” noted two important traits — the streamlined profiles of Artwork Deco furnishing and the emergence of vivid colors and daring designs.

“The celebration of luxurious fabrics and finishes seemed to stand for optimism and celebration as we emerge from the pandemic,” their style report notes.

Pittsburgh-based mostly interior designer Hayley Watters states some of the Art Deco-motivated trends she’s looking at are curved sofas, furniture with rounded edges and parts with fluted detailing.

Juliane Mazzarella, owner of Avenue Interiors in Sewickley, provides that texture, these as plush boucle, is big for furnishings, even though Bock states parts with additional sculptural styles are trending.

Couch Fourhands Jan22“You’ll see big cylindrical legs on tables, or stunning curves, like in Pittsburgh’s very own Leanne Ford’s assortment for Crate & Barrel,” she states.

Common supplies this kind of as leather also are getting employed in new strategies, such as raw-edged seams or spectacular pleats and pintucks on sofas, according to Mazzarella. Melissa Rees of Pittsburgh’s M Hill Rees Interiors also is forecasting a return to parts that are far more ornate — or just simply fascinating.

“I am viewing eating tables with additional intriguing bases, and sofas with a minor personality, a lot less boxy,” she claims. “I assume skirted facts will be popping up too, exhibited in a not-so ‘shabby chic’ way, but typical contemporary.”

Porch Jan22
Wealthy Tones and Magnificent Elements

Grey paint and everyday, farmhouse decor (until you reside in an actual farmhouse, remember to move absent from the rustic farmhouse indicator) have been on the way out for decades, but traits for 2022 set the remaining nail in the coffin.

Mazzarella states whites are having warmer and colors are having richer — think darker earth tones in clay, ochre, evergreen and indigo. Blush, beige, and comfortable grays, on the other hand, stay well-liked for younger and far more contemporary seems.

“You can deliver these new colours into your existing areas with pillows, throws, artwork and equipment,” she suggests. “Layering them into a neutral place is a good way to update.”

As for Rees, she’s swooning over jewel-toned, embroidered fabrics or supplies with a luster to them.

“I am dying for the courageous customer that allows me produce a moody grasp bed room setting for them making use of these extremely things,” she states.

And forget about the minimalist look. Watters claims today’s dark, rich wall colours pair very well with a maximalist vibe, so expect to see large, opulent mirrors, curved home furniture, velvet resources and shiny wooden finishes.

Flower Wall Jan22
Include Sample and Texture

Moreover boucle, Mazzarella says designs — which includes fun terrazzo-fashion tabletops — are in all places.

“Patterns are coming again and are much more common than we have seen in many years: plaids, stripes, floral, damasks and modest prints,” she says.

Higher Point’s Fashion Spotters also famous an abundance of organic and natural components these types of as jute, rope and pencil rattan on household furniture and lights.

If you are completely ready to include some texture (Alright, and some sample) to your home, the aforementioned wallpaper — like peel-and-adhere kinds that are easy to install and get rid of — is a terrific possibility, Mazzarella suggests.

“One of the most important matters you can do when designing is to create surprising moments,” Rees adds. “For case in point, wallpapering the ceiling is a really fresh way to draw your eye up without having overwhelming a room.”

Other strategies of adding desire to your dwelling are compact, still impactful, touches this sort of as wall paneling and intricately detailed stair balusters and rails.

“Layering in element like this, in my impression, would make a home so a great deal a lot more than furnishings can,” Rees states. “This included degree of style is one thing that I feel will grow to be far more and a lot more requested as men and women have obtain to [apps] like TikTok and Instagram.”

Lanterns Jan22
The Pandemic Effect 

One of the additional benign results from the coronavirus pandemic is that home owners, no extended commuting daily to an place of work, started nurturing crops. Considering that then, there has been a flip towards character-impressed layouts.

“From teak vases to bead chandeliers, cane home furniture and floral murals, the outside is coming within,” suggests Betsy Wentz, proprietor of Studio B in Sewickley, who also notes that shades of environmentally friendly, from pale sage to olive, are trending.

Developing the fantastic backdrop for individuals now-beloved home plants are textured partitions in purely natural tones, which can produce a peaceful, Mediterranean feel, Rees says.

“When combined with arched openings and natural fluid touches like blown glass in extras and lighting, stained wood items, purely natural stone and arched openings, it helps make for a actually serene surroundings,” she claims.

Like previous 12 months, and with lots of people today still performing from home, there is a continued fascination in home offices.

Lr Jan22“Some men and women may possibly have thought that functioning from dwelling was non permanent or that they could make do, and now they are setting up to notice that they want to make investments there,” Bock suggests.

As this kind of, open-notion floor strategies — when the crown jewel of any new household create — also are not as really wanted as they the moment were being. As an alternative, walls are the new awesome child.

“Moving ahead, I consider property owners will be additional thoughtful when renovating or developing new to make operate zones and personal room, even if it is as very simple as a looking through nook below the stairs,” Rees suggests. “It is extremely significant to develop environments that sustain separation from operate lifestyle and property existence.”

Endless assortment, eye for design leads to growth for Forth Worth retailer

Fort Truly worth, Texas-dependent retailer There is No Put Like Home Furniture is opening a second shop this month.

FORT Value, Texas — In a minor extra than two a long time in organization, owner Abby Slayton-Tobin has built her shop, There’s No Put Like Residence Furnishings, like no location in Fort Value.

For starters, Slayton-Tobin has merchandise from some 800 distributors accessible via her retail outlet, which features circumstance items, upholstery, mattresses, rugs, lighting, décor pieces, wall art, residence office environment, outside and a lot more. It also presents comprehensive interior design and style services with degreed designers on staff members. It’s gotten recognized, as There is No Place Like Home has received honors for best home furnishings retail outlet in Fort Truly worth for 12 years operating. The keep is also increasing, as There is No Put Like Residence Two (Two, as it is acknowledged colloquially) gentle-opened on Dec. 18.

So how does a retailer showcase solution from that several suppliers in a footprint of close to 4,800 sq. toes?

“We have the most choice of any home furniture shop in Texas,” Slayton-Tobin told Home furnishings Nowadays. “What we do is present one particular sample piece from each individual producer in our showroom so folks can see the excellent, the development, the aesthetic of that business, but we can source everything from any of people producers.”

Slayton-Tobin mentioned, with relationships in place with so lots of suppliers, her store hasn’t been squeezed as really hard by supply chain constraints. Buyers have comprehensive access, and any merchandise purchased are fall-transported.

“We buy direct from the company. For the reason that lead instances are gradual appropriate now and stock is a pressure stage with furnishings, because we have so a lot of strains, we have a whole lot more resources to locate that piece of home furniture the purchaser needs that is in stock and prepared to ship,” Slayton-Tobin claimed.

“We can convey to them up entrance the specific a single they want may well be eight months out but we have seven extra that are identical or identical that we can get within 4 months. That cuts the hold out time down mainly because we have so quite a few manufacturers to supply from. For the reason that we really do not continue to keep stock, our rates are likely to be lower than a regular household furniture retail keep. We don’t have that overhead of stock.”

The employees designers operate with clientele at home and in the retail store, and get extensive notes and photos to create types and look books. Their comprehensive notes arrive in helpful for people shoppers who want to do a venture space-by-place alternatively than in one particular shot.

“Nothing’s as well modest, and nothing’s also big. We can do in-house design and style visits for our consumers, and our designers can set jointly a glimpse reserve for every single space,” Slayton-Tobin stated.

She observed layout small business and customers routinely arrive from all throughout the area. Underscoring that place, she explained that modern deliveries have incorporated Houston and Tulsa, Okla. “We have consumers who come from all about the condition.”

Whilst the to start with There is No Place Like Home, located at 855 Foch St., has come to be a thing of a spot, Slayton-Tobin is hopeful that Two, which is at 4854 White Settlement Road, can realize a equivalent standing in its neighborhood. So significantly, Slayton-Tobin said there are two present organizations there, but it’s attracting loads of new inhabitants, which bodes well for likely expansion.

“We’re in a pretty chaotic spot our first site is kind of a location location. We’re surrounded by museums and are living new music venues and a large amount of new household substantial rises. We’re exceptionally hectic here,” she claimed. “There’s a new place that is up and coming, the River District, and there are a whole lot of ideas for that location. I can envision, in a calendar year or so, obtaining a whole lot of foot site visitors and new individuals to the space in strolling distance from the new retail outlet. I’m seeking to support build that place up.”

And though Two will be about 50 percent the size of the authentic retail outlet, Slayton-Tobin feels that will not be a hindrance, only due to the fact she’s obtained a strategy that functions.

“The dimensions doesn’t make any difference since of all the distributors and lines we have, we’ll have the exact sum in the lesser store,” she mentioned. “Even even though it’s scaled-down, the availability of objects will be specifically the exact.”

The art of design: Hotel Indigo infuses spaces with unexpected design details inspired by neighborhoods – 2021 – News & Media – Newsroom

Hotel Indigo illuminates the world within its neighborhood through authentic and unexpected design details.

The boutique hotel brand from IHG Hotels & Resorts blends design inspired by neighborhood nuances and bespoke touches from local creators to ignite guests’ sense of curiosity and discovery.

With a design-driven ethos rooted in the art of storytelling, Hotel Indigo is a force in illuminating the world within its neighborhood. Each hotel is inspired by its own unique story, thoughtfully infusing details to spotlight the authentic and the unexpected.

A locale’s distinct style and architecture, rich history, colorful personalities and culinary culture come together at Hotel Indigo, creating an aesthetic that stirs curiosity and discovery from the moment guests step inside. Just as no two neighborhoods are alike, no two Hotel Indigo hotels are designed alike. Every property is intended to inspire connection among visitors and locals alike, with stylish yet approachable gathering spaces that spark conversation. Signature to Hotel Indigo, local creators are meticulously woven into both the interior design and the experience itself to bring the neighborhood to life within the hotel walls.

Whether exploring the destination through the lens of a local, popping in for an after-work aperitif or staying on a brief business trip, the artful local touches imbued into these properties from Miami to Adelaide will make finding a reason to travel again simple and, perhaps, inspire you to discover your own neighborhood at home with new eyes.

Hotel Indigo Lower East Side – Lobby Artwork

Hotel Indigo Miami Brickell – Guest Room

Hotel Indigo Miami Brickell in Florida

Situated in Mary Brickell Village, the new Hotel Indigo Miami Brickell tells stories of its neighborhood, where a symphony of Latin, Spanish, Native American and American folk influences are embraced and celebrated. The neighborhood itself is a mosaic of old and new – from ancient treasures to gleaming high-rises nestled beside bungalows. Hotel Indigo Miami Brickell was designed by internationally renowned architect and fashion designer Angel Sanchez of Coleman+Sanchez Studio. Guest room artwork and circular rugs draw inspiration from the Miami Circle, an archaeological site considered to be the only known evidence of an ancient structure built by the Tequesta around 2,000 years ago.

Hotel Indigo Lower East Side in New York

The Lower East Side is one of New York City’s most storied and dynamic neighborhoods, enriched with the culture of its first immigrant inhabitants passing through Ellis Island as well as the music, art and dance legends who have come to define generations. It is the birthplace of vibrant graffiti art that covered city streets in the 1980s and 1990s, including the works of legendary graffiti artist and Lower East Side native Lee Quinones. Music icons, including Blondie, the Ramones, Madonna and the Rolling Stones, have all spent time, gained influence and made an impact on this bold, energetic neighborhood. Today, the Lower East Side continues to inspire visitors and city dwellers to explore, play, create and thrive.

Hotel Indigo Lower East Side New York’s design captures the vibrant, edgy and artistic spirit of its surroundings. Graffiti, found objects and street art motifs are infused throughout the hotel, just as they permeate the neighborhood. Upon entering, guests will be met with impactful sculptural art and intricate ironwork.

The hotel commissioned street artist Lee Quinones to help bring the distinctive neighborhood to life in the hotel experience. Quinones is one of the originators of street art in the 1970s and was instrumental in bringing the movement above ground. From a custom life-sized mural on the ceiling of the 14th floor sky lobby to the unique wall art within guestrooms and elevator lobbies, his work vividly brings the storied past and present of the Lower East Side to life.

Mr. Purple, the hotel’s rooftop bar and restaurant designed with an artist-loft ambiance, pays homage to the artists and musicians who took up residence in the neighborhood in the 1960s, transforming it into a realm of art and creativity.

Hotel Indigo Belgrade – Brutalism-Inspired Guest Room

Hotel Indigo Stratford Upon Avon – Guest Room

Hotel Indigo Venice-Sant’Elena – Savor Restaurant and Bar

Hotel Indigo Belgrade in Serbia

Like its Old Town surroundings, the recently-opened Hotel Indigo Belgrade’s architecture showcases the mishmash of cultures and styles born from the city’s fascinating history. Serbia’s capital sits at the meeting point of the Sava and Danube rivers and was historically a highly connected crossroad between east and west Europe used by traders, missionaries, tourists, ambassadors and craftsman. Landing in Belgrade, travelers from various empires, including the Romans, the Goths, the Huns, the Ottomans and the Austro-Hungarians, often left their own particular imprint on the city.

Hotel Indigo Belgrade’s 46 boutique rooms feature two distinct design styles. Drawing inspiration from the Brutalist architecture found in the city, the hotel’s Brutalism-inspired room style has concrete walls contrasted by unique artwork and textiles with unusual geometric shapes. The second room style was designed to evoke the Art Deco period of the city, with muted pastel colors and arches in the headboard mimicking the design influence of the era.

Guests are greeted by an eye-catching reception specially designed to mirror the shape of a local monument, Knez Mihailo, with locally made Serbian rugs hanging above. The use of gold throughout the lobby, reception area and elevator reference the nearby National Museum, originally built as a bank. Those who look closely will notice the elevator walls are covered in hidden poems by some of the nation’s most famous poets. The hotel’s living room pays homage to the union of trade routes with an eclectic mix of styles through the ages, from Pirot rugs, a national treasure from Southern Serbia, to 70’s inspired floor lamps.

Hotel Indigo – Stratford Upon Avon in the UK

Paying homage to the town’s heritage and a slice of bygone England, Hotel Indigo – Stratford Upon Avon thoughtfully infuses classic English materials such as wool and raw wood into the interior design of each guest room. A combination of antique furniture pieces and modern fixtures create a contemporary space that celebrates the past with a modern twist. Guests will also discover a carefully curated selection of contemporary artwork, murals and, as the birthplace of William Shakespeare and home to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, artifacts inspired by Shakespeare throughout the property.

Hotel Indigo Venice – Sant’Elena in Italy

Venice is filled with beauty and history, but despite its immense popularity, there are still pockets of the city yet to be discovered. The Sant’Elena neighborhood is a global hub for modern art and culture, nearby the Venice International Film Festival, the Murano Glass Factory and the Giardini della Biennale, a year-round hub for modern art and culture that truly comes alive during the Venice Biennale.

Hotel Indigo Venice – Sant’Elena, a converted 1930s monastery, is nestled among the palaces, cathedrals, and museums of its fairy-tale city. The hotel’s interior design and bespoke touches speak to the historical importance of the building and its surroundings. This peaceful sanctuary is composed of two wings joined in the center by a former chapel and boasts an interior courtyard and large windows with high ceilings, evocative of the neighborhood’s existing architecture.

Hotel Indigo Venice – Sant’Elena’s interior design blends the building’s original features with oriental influences inspired by local tradition and history, with touches of modern elements contrasting the classic Venetian style. Sumptuous velvet pillows are layered atop leather seating while brass lighting scattered throughout the hotel plays contrast to the deep wood paneling of the lobby walls and the emerald green marble bar top. Public areas are dotted with ebru paintings, a reference to the city’s history of introducing the marbleized papers into their famed repertory of woodblock prints, copperplate engraving and book leather binding.

To the delight of diners, Savor Restaurant and Bar calls upon the 16th century trade relationship of the Venetian and Ottoman Empires with handmade Les Ottomans wall plates adorning its walls, depicting figures of Ottoman Empire royalty.

Hotel Indigo Dubai Downtown – 10th Floor Hallway Artwork

Hotel Indigo Dubai Downtown in the United Arab Emirates

An art and design-lover’s paradise, Hotel Indigo Dubai Downtown is perched along the banks of Dubai Creek, just minutes from the glitzy, avant-garde Dubai Design District. Historically, Dubai has grown in parallel with the development and extension of the Dubai Creek. The Creek’s journey is a story of the transformation of Dubai from a trading post to the city of the future, which has influenced the hotel’s architectural and interior approach.

Every detail of Hotel Indigo Dubai Downtown has been thoughtfully designed, with striking works of art showcased throughout. The hotel features over 200 curated pieces of art with the intention of building a collection that helps tell the hotel’s neighborhood story. It has partnered with local creatives through associations with the Alserkal Cultural Foundation, Tashkeel and XVA gallery, and each floor is dedicated to one artist, giving guests an opportunity to enjoy the art on the way to their contemporary rooms. Featured artwork is not only from local artists, but also from Dubai-based expatriates who have drawn inspiration from the city, the Emirati culture and the heritage of local vernacular.

Each of the four food and beverage outlets showcase dynamic works of art as well. The Bakala Jooos juice bar and concept store is surrounded by creative artwork, from a printed wallpaper commissioned by artist Daniel Wegera to woven tapestry rugs. Open Sesame, the property’s social eatery, features a breathtaking entrance with fabrics designed by French fashion designer Christian Lacroix. The result is a modern take on Emirati heritage with souk-inspired stalls and embroidered abaya patterns in the entrance.

Hotel Indigo Adelaide Markets – Brick Archway

Hotel Indigo Hakone Gora – Lobby

Hotel Indigo Kuala Lumpur on the Park

Hotel Indigo Adelaide Markets

Marking the brand’s Australian debut, the 145-room Hotel Indigo Adelaide Markets welcomes visitors with deep connections to the neighborhood and intriguing design features. Housed on the site of a former textile factory, the property’s “Raw and Refined” design ethos celebrates the neighborhood’s commercial past with an exciting blend of heritage-listed and modern architecture as well as eye-catching contemporary details throughout. The hotel’s public spaces feature striking brick archways mimicking those in Adelaide Central Market circa-1900 grand façade, colorful street art-inspired murals by acclaimed Australian collage artists, including Tristan Kerr, and an exposed terracotta brick feature wall etched with intriguing neighborhood references such as “Six o’clock Swill” and “Mad March” – the name given to Festival month in the city. Continuing its cultural tribute, exclusive Adelaide Festival-inspired poster art is featured in the corridors and rooms, while a rotating selection of artworks create an engaging, ever-changing backdrop in public spaces.

Hotel Indigo Hakone Gora in Japan

Hakone Gora is a town of two tales. In its 100-year history, Japan’s intellectuals and socialites have escaped from bustling cities to experience vibrant nature and pastel-colored onsens (hot springs) while creating a modern neighborhood filled with contemporary museums, digital art and the perpetual draw of the cherry blossoms. These stories form the Hotel Indigo Hakone Gora neighborhood experience, where guests can immerse in the history through the hotel’s artwork and design.

The hotel’s interior design is influenced by Hakone Gora’s past. Ancient patterns from local Yosegi-zaiku woodwork have inspired wood patterns throughout the hotel’s lobby while parquetry woodwork decorates the ceilings and guest rooms. Contemporary artwork references Hakone’s nature through ukiyo-e paintings, fireflies, fallen leaves and mountainous landscapes. Nostalgia and novelty sit at the core of the guest room design, with playful headboard artwork from Studio Café SHIMA that reflects the early Showa-period scenery of Gora. Photography features quirky motifs, including a courier dressed in traditional costume holding a ‘selfie stick,’ a classic bus painted with the Yosegi-zaiku pattern, soccer players, and a UFO or drone mid-flight.

Hotel Indigo Hakone Gora offers a modern twist on the onsen ritual with traditional wood finishes reminiscent of the Meiji-period bathhouses contrasted with a dramatic digital art wall installation. The installation represents Hakone’s four seasons with rotating expressions of warmth, new life and the location’s natural landscape through colorful digital lighting.

Hotel Indigo Kuala Lumpur on the Park in Malaysia, Opening Fall 2022

Hotel Indigo will make its debut in the heart of Malaysia’s capital city with a 180-room property located at the base of the picturesque Bukit Nanas. Kuala Lumpur’s multicultural influences will be embedded in the hotel’s DNA through a visionary design that captures the historical cham of local heritage buildings and the breadth of nearby modern architecture. With greenery from one of the country’s oldest forest reserves woven throughout the hotel to bring the forest inside, memorable features include an interactive Green Wall in the lobby and a spot of quiet serenity amidst the bustle of the city found in the concrete sky jungle and a Secret Garden. From the use of distinctive local ingredients in its dining selection through to graffiti walls made in collaboration with local artists, Hotel Indigo Kuala Lumpur on the Park promises to provide guests with an inspiring mix of cultures and experiences.

Hotel Indigo Suzhou Grand Canal – Lobby

Hotel Indigo Diqing Moonlight City – Lobby

Hotel Indigo Diqing Moonlight City

Atop the commanding heights of Dukezong Ancient Town, Hotel Indigo Diqing Moonlight City takes its Neighborhood Story inspiration from Shangri-La, epitomizing the legendary lost paradise of idyllic beauty and tranquility. The ancient town of Dukezong, with its labyrinthine lanes laid out in the shape of an eight-petal lotus flower, is one of the oldest and culturally rich places in Shangri-La. Shaded by sensuous greenery that’s symbolic of the surrounding nature, the hotel entrance features a ceiling with a hollowed design by which natural lights collect and illuminate the hotel lobby to reawaken the esoteric tales of the Ancient Tea Horse Road.

Hotel Indigo Suzhou Grand Canal

As the first Hotel Indigo in China’s Jiangsu province, Hotel Indigo Suzhou Grand Canal exudes its own distinctive ambiance that encourages guests to explore and experience the surrounding neighborhood – a rich blend of vibrant modernity together with the ancient Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. The hotel’s charming interior design concept by HBA Design-works is inspired by Prosperous Suzhou, a renowned 18th century masterpiece painting depicting the bustling urban life of Souzhou. The meticulous interior further draws upon the deep architectural and cultural influences of Suzhou’s history and fuses them into a characteristically contemporary style.

Continue the art and design journey on Instagram at @HotelIndigo or through Hotel Indigo’s newest and upcoming properties, including Hotel Indigo NYC Downtown – Wall Street, Hotel Indigo Omaha Downtown in Nebraska, Hotel Indigo Vancouver Downtown – Portland Area in Washington, Hotel Indigo Bintan in Indonesia as well as Hotel Indigo Karuizawa and Hotel Indigo Inuyama Urakuen Garden in Japan.

To learn more about Hotel Indigo, visit www.hotelindigo.com.

A Suburban L.A. Home Is Updated With Art Gallery Vibes

AFTER: The team imported Italian terrazzo by Marmi Scala for the floors and chose marine-grade plywood as a more casual contrast for the ceiling, stairs, and millwork.

Sam Wadieh

AFTER: “We introduced three sets of identical sliding doors, and when they’re open, the exterior spaces become an extension of these family rooms,” Jeff says.

Brandon Stanley

“We solved this home’s challenges by embracing some of its largest obstacles, like the central staircase and the living room’s volume,” Kristin says. “We also found that by exposing some of these elements, such as the beams in the living room, we could better define the new spaces.”

BEFORE: The existing kitchen was moved completely to the other side of the ground floor, which made it easier to see the backyard pool from the new living and dining areas.

AFTER: The new kitchen is much more open to the rest of the house, and its sleek white appearance allows the terrazzo and plywood to shine.

Brandon Stanley

Once the new floor plan was in place, Jeff and Kristin received guidance from one of the owners, an art dealer, to incorporate a stunning suburban style. With the trio of the new sliding doors to the backyard and a handful of skylights overhead, they all agreed the design should be airy with enough interesting objects and materials to catch the eye. “We were interested in a mix of high and low materials,” Jeff says. They imported Italian terrazzo by Marmi Scala for the floors, which has a formal finish that contrasts with the casual feel of marine-grade plywood they hand-selected after reviewing dozens of sheets. “We also detailed the plywood to express their character, like exposing the edges of the sheets and using their thickness as a module for the millwork,” Jeff continues.

AFTER: The bathrooms got sleek upgrades with white walls and simple square tiles.

Sam Wadieh

AFTER: The wood accents in the cabinetry continue in this bathroom, too.

Brandon Stanley

It’s been two years since this renovation was completed, and the owners have been proud to present a twist on midcentury modern to their street. Jeff and Kristin can’t help but feel that neighborly love, too. “We connected really well with these owners,” Kristin says. “We were happy to tackle such a challenging project for their family.”

BEFORE: The existing pool was still a crowd-pleaser, but the renovation would make it more modern.

AFTER: A new coat of paint and a sleeker landscape job gave the exterior a much-needed upgrade.

Sam Wadieh

AFTER: The backyard also has a sitting and dining area beside the pool on artificial grass, making maintenance a breeze.

Sam Wadieh

Expanding the Scope of ‘Latin American Art’

You don’t need to know anything about art to be stopped in your tracks by what’s on the walls of El Museo del Barrio these days: the fantastic ballpoint pen drawings by Consuelo (Chelo) González Amézcua (1903-1975), a Mexican immigrant to Texas; the stupefyingly intricate collages of Felipe Jesus Consalvos, who was born in Havana and died in Philadelphia, where in 1983 his life’s work was found in a garage sale; and the pictographic paintings of Puerto Rican-born Eloy Blanco (1933-1984), who came to New York City to study art and learned from fellow Latinos about the Indigenous Taino culture of his homeland — a culture he ended up making the wellspring of his work.

This season has brought a bounty of historical shows of Latin American and Latino art, two cultural categories that are closely related without being interchangeable. Latin American is generally understood to designate art originating in the southern hemisphere of the Americas. Latino (with its Latina and Latinx cognates) refers to work by artists of Latin American descent working in the United States. But both terms are spacious and mutable.

The two meet in a pair of exhibitions at El Museo del Barrio. The larger, “Popular Painters and Other Visionaries,” spotlights work by 35 artists — González Amézcua, Consalvos and Blanco among them — born in the first half of the 20th century. Most are from Latin America; and many are self-taught, which means that much of the work doesn’t adhere to the mainstream market definition of “Latin American art” as work influenced, and elevated, by an association with elite European modernism.

Organized by El Museo curators Rodrigo Moura and Susanna V. Temkin, working with Ash Cortes, an intern, the show offers a counterargument from the start, with a display of three banners, glinting with sequins, and embroidered with mystical symbols. They were made by Antoine Oleyant (1955-1992), a Vodou priest from Haiti, and represent a distinctive local art tradition, one with clear Afro-Atlantic sources.

Other pieces, many culled from El Museo’s permanent collection, support the case for an expanded view of Latin American art, one that incorporates 1950s paintings of Yoruba myths by Rafael Borjes de Oliveira, a Brazilian policeman and Candomblé devotee, along with Asilia Guillén’s stitch-fine depictions of scenes from Nicaraguan history; but also the work of Latinx artists like Consalvos and Blanco, who were born in Latin America but spent their creative years in the United States.

Consalvos is thought to have died around 1960, on the cusp of a decade of intense Latino activism in North American cities, in reaction to racist neglect and aggression. As always, New York’s Puerto Rican community had to see to its own survival, which included preserving its history. To this end, in 1974, three young photographers — Charles Biasiny-Rivera, Roger Cabán and Felipe Dante — formed En Foco, a collective devoted to documenting Latino life from the inside. And the second exhibition at El Museo, “En Foco: The New York Puerto Rican Experience, 1973-1974,” displays the group’s inaugural portfolio, made up of images of daily life in the streets and schools of the barrio, and among Latino laborers in and outside the city.

In 1969, another volunteer grassroots start-up, Taller Boricua, also called the Puerto Rican Workshop, set up shop in a public school classroom. It’s still in operation and maintains a modest gallery in the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center at 106th Street and Lexington Avenue, where a founder, the artist Marcos Dimas, has installed a not-to-be-missed show.

It’s titled “Temporal Chronology,” and that’s exactly what it is: a year-by-year timeline of the Workshop’s history mapped out on the gallery walls in hundreds of pieces of printed ephemera: exhibition posters, letters, protest signs, newspaper clips. The wraparound archive also doubles as a half-century document of unbroken community activism, which persists even as the community changes. And it’s a personal record of Dimas’s career as artist-worker and political witness. (What’s on the walls has been stored in his apartment.) The city should honor him with a medal, and give Taller Boricua an extra shot of funding.

Dimas’s name gets a mention in an ambitious group exhibition called “This Must Be the Place: Latin American Artists in New York, 1965-1975” at Americas Society.

The narrative here is of artists from South and Central America coming to New York City, a newly hot international cultural center, some to explore career opportunities, others to escape political repression. Most didn’t think of themselves on arrival particularly as “Latin American,” never mind “Latino.” And while the show acknowledges the longtime presence of Latino artists in the city, there seems to have little interchange between them and the newcomers.

Race and class played a role in this, and differing senses of investment in the city. To Latino artists it was both home and battleground. To Latin American transplants it was a stage where a politics of aesthetics was playing out in new avant-garde styles and forms: Minimalism, Conceptualism, video and performance. And what extraordinary artists the experiments brought to New York: temporarily, Hélio Oiticica from Brazil, Marta Minujín from Argentina, Zilia Sánchez Dominguez from Cuba; permanently, Luis Camnitzer from Uruguay, Juan Downey from Chile, Freddy Rodríguez from the Dominican Republic.

They are among some 40 artists and collectives in the show, organized by the Americas Society curator Aimé Iglesias Lukin, with Mariana Fernández, Tie Jojima and Natalia Viera Salgado — which comes in two parts, one through this Saturday, Dec. 18, the other, with different work by the same artists, opening Jan. 22.

Work by Latin American artists who produced art in the United States can also be found in galleries. A small show called “José Antonio Fernández-Muro: Geometry in Transfer” at the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA), on the Upper East Side, surveys work from the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the Argentine artist moved, with his wife, the painter Sarah Grilo, to New York from Buenos Aires. In South America he was associated with an ethereal and utopian strain of geometric abstraction. In New York, the quietist impulse hit a bump: paintings were based on rubbings he made of Manhattan sewer grates and manhole covers. The show, organized by Megan Kincaid, an instructor at New York University, gives us both before and after work, equally beautiful.

Also on the Upper East Side, Henrique Faria Gallery, which specializes in Latin American art, is showing work by the Swiss-born Venezuelan photographer Luis Molina-Pantin, who calls himself “an urban archaeologist.” On visits to New York from 2001 to 2006, he photographed (with a hidden camera) the back room offices of big-deal Chelsea galleries, sterile, high-ceilinged, art-free spaces that suggest mortuaries. During the same decade, disguised as a real estate agent, he was shooting Disneyesque drug-baron mansions in Colombia, one a miniature version of the Taj Mahal. In the show, it’s hard to decide which version of power architecture is weirder.

And a few blocks away, at Hunter College’s Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Gallery, “Life as Activity: David Lamelas” is celebrating the career of the veteran Argentina-born conceptualist, focusing on two of his films. The longer one, “The Desert People,” is a rough and interesting pseudo-documentary about researching Native American life, made in 1974 in Los Angeles. “The Invention of Dr. Morel” was made in Europe in 2000. It’s polished and spooky and has a hologram — a kind of proto-NFT? — for a heroine. The exhibition was developed by students in a Hunter graduate seminar led by Harper Montgomery, a professor, with the artist participating via Zoom.

Hunter College is home to the invaluable Center for Puerto Rican Studies (Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños). And the Hunter East Harlem Gallery at 119th Street and Third Avenue has given significant exposure to Latino art, as it is doing now with “Lina Puerta: Migration, Nature, and the Feminine,” a compact midcareer survey of sculpture by an artist raised in Colombia and created during her time as an East Harlem resident. Puerta’s assemblages, with their fake tropical greenery, faux fur, lace, rhinestones and sexualized forms, represent the exoticism that some Latin American Conceptualists were rejecting, but that has, in Puerta’s hands, a critical politics (eco-feminist, anti-colonialist) of its own. As conceived by Klaudia Ofwona Draber and Arden Sherman (the gallery’s director), the show is too much, and proud.

A final strong exhibition is far downtown at South Street Seaport, in a new gallery named Calderón. Its debut show features two New York painters, Shellyne Rodriguez and Danielle De Jesus, who focus on the different Latino worlds they’ve been part of.

De Jesus spent her childhood in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and paints memory-portraits of people there. Many lived and died in poverty, or were pushed out of their homes as real estate values rose. Rodriguez grew up in the Soundview section of the Bronx. Her color pencil drawings are portraits too, but they’re not sad; they’re sassy. And in compositions based on vintage hip-hop fliers, figures are surrounded by words: song lyrics, advertising slogans, Bronx street names, quotes from Frantz Fanon. This is a world that may partly exist in the past, but it’s jumpily noisy, and still alive.

Latino/Latina/Latinx continues to defy easy definition, but attempts to do so keep coming, the latest being the Winter 2021 “Latinx” issue of Aperture magazine, guest-edited by Pilar Tompkins Rivas. In 17 essays it circles and probes the subject from many angles. What comes through in the end is not consensus but a kind of wild richness. Why try to pin down, and narrow, a concept that has, after all, always contained multitudes?



Popular Painters and Other Visionaries, and the historical photo show En Foco: The New York Puerto Rican Experience, 1973—74. Through Feb. 27, El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Avenue, at 105th Street, Manhattan, (212) 831-7272; elmuseo.org,

This Must Be the Place: Latin American Artists in New York, 1965—1975

Part 1 through Dec. 18; Part 2, Jan. 19 through May 14; Americas Society, 680 Park Avenue at 68th Street, Manhattan, (212) 249-8950; as-coa.org.

Temporal Chronology

Taller Boricua Gallery, 1680 Lexington Avenue at 106th Street, (212) 831-4333; tallerboricua.org.

Lina Puerta: Migration, Nature, and the Feminine

Through Feb. 5, Hunter East Harlem Gallery, 2180 Third Avenue at 119th Street, Manhattan; (212) 396 7819; huntereastharlemgallery.org

Life as Activity: David Lamelas

Through Dec. 18, Hunter College Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Gallery, 132 East 68th Street, Manhattan, leubsdorfgallery.org.

José Antonio Fernández-Muro: Geometry in Transfer

Through Feb. 12, ISLAA (Institute for Studies on Latin American Art), 50 East 78th Street, Manhattan, www.islaa.org. .

Luis Molina-Pantin: Everything Must Go

Through Feb. 12, Henrique Faria, 35 E. 67th St., Manhattan, (212) 517-4609; henriquefaria.com.

Danielle De Jesus and Shellyne Rodriguez

Through Jan. 22, Calderón, 106 South Street, Manhattan, (929) 624-2878; calderon-ny.com.