NEWS: Why We Need More Art in Hotels
What if exploring local artists and artisans were accessible right outside your hotel room door? From the sights and smells of a new locale ready to be explored to an immersion into local culture, hotels in Greece and Cyprus are stepping up their accommodations and bringing you gallery shows and art immersions like never before.
From indulgent beachside resorts along the Aegean to unassuming yet glamorous boutique hotels in cities like Athens, a hotel’s environment and design are vital to keeping you entertained. Bring art into the scene and you have a rare hospitality experience!
Aristeidis Lappas, Pink Hand and Helmet, Pastel Statue, 2022, paper, cement and oil paint, installation view from “underthesun,” courtesy of The Breeder
Notorious for its design expertise and partnerships, the Perianth Hotel in Agias Eirinis Square in Athens is at the forefront of modern style and contemporary Greek culture. Designed in partnership with the visionaries at K-Studio in Athens, the Perianth Hotel holds a neo-modernist flair. "When visitors come to Athens they mostly seek Ancient Greece, so we wanted a place where contemporary Greek creativity could thrive,” said Anastasia Sgoumpopolous, one of the hotel’s founders, in an interview with the publication dezeen. The hotel features Greek and Cypriot art on every floor, and partners with local communities for exhibitions like the “Heather Stays at 505” show featuring art by Katerina Komianou, on display last year. The show was curated by the respected Lydia Antoniou and George Bekirakis. See more details here.
Walking into the Almyra Hotel in Paphos, Cyprus, you’ll now find the exhibition “Island,” a collection of contemporary artworks from 18 Greek and Cypriot artists as curated by Andros Efstathiou at IsNotGallery based in Nicosia. The communal spaces of the Almyra hotel are decorated with colorful sculptures, paintings, and mixed media– helping convey how seamlessly art can be incorporated into hospitality via local creative communities.
Interactive artistic designs are also trickling into the Greek island lifestyle. The Under the Sun Cycladic Village resort on the island of Tinos is currently hosting the “underthesun” exhibition curated by Odette Kouzou. The exhibition features 12 artists each utilizing unique media and presenting theatrical perspectives and questions on everyday life, personal growth, and relationships to self, others, objects, and traditions. The works emerge from the natural island landscape and interact with its defining features of light, air, sea, and soil.
In the show, artist Marilia Kolibiri’s series “bathing issues” (ceramics, 2022, various dimensions) brings a meta display of reflections on the need for vacation to escape from urban life, while still consuming material goods imposed on us by modern living. In Chrisanthi Koumianaki’s “Notes for Someone Who is 1.67m or Higher and is Bored on a Bus” (2016, metal objects, marker on wall, variable dimensions), marble structures guide you to take new shapes and forms, initiating different choreographies and narratives of the mind and body. Artist Aristeidis Lappas also presents a number of his sculptural compositions as experimental evolutions to his paintings and lean on his relationship with mythology and the human form.
Absorbing the energy of not only a hotel’s location but its art can bring a newfound sense of peace and renewal to your time away. Even if your hotel isn’t hosting an exhibition, you can swing by one that is! Whether being welcomed by a statue in the lobby or discovering a local artist on the walls, original art is a natural highlight to a hotel’s foundation. As the first thing you experience in a country, your hotel should be your gateway into what locals intimately express about their lives and culture through art.
“Island” at Almyra hotel will be live until August 30th. The 18 participating artists are: Kris Betta, Spyros Agathou, Andros Efstathiou, Elina Theodotou, Marios Theofyllides, Yiannos Ioannou, Eleni Kindini, Mariella Mbilitsa, Vrasidas Neophytou, Charoulla Nicolaidou, Thekla Papadopoulou, Elena Parouti, Despina Petridou, Andreas Skoufaris, Vania Sergiou-Souroulla, Constantinos Stephanou, Panicos Tempriotis, and Antonis Tsiaridis
“underthesun” will remain open to the public by appointment only at info@underthesuntinos.com or +306949412420 until October 3rd. The 12 artists featured are: Alexandros Simopoulos, Antonakis, Aristides Lappas, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Despina Charitonidi, Evgenia Vereli, Margarita Myrogianni, Marilia Kolibiri, Nana Sachini, Panos Profitis, Socrates Fatouros, and Sofia Stevi
