The Mondrian Singapore Duxton has taken hospitality to a whole new level by featuring a permanent multi-disciplinary art collection on its premises.
This collaboration between the hotel and Asia’s premier art advisors and tastemakers, The Artling, has been two years in the making and promises to be a world-class collection of artworks from both emerging and established artists.
With artworks ranging from painting and photography to digital art and sculpture, the Mondrian Singapore Duxton Art Collection is sure to leave guests in awe.
The placement of each piece has been carefully considered to provide an element of surprise and movement as guests journey through the property.
Curated by The Artling’s founder Talenia Phua Gajardo and Gallery Director Kim Tay, the collection includes both local and international artists. The abstract British painter Ian Davenport, whose works are represented in major galleries worldwide, is among the represented artists, along with the US installation specialists SOFTlab led by Michael Szivos, American photographer Tyler Shields, and Singaporeans Dawn Ng and André Wee.
The hotel’s General Manager, Robert C. Hauck, is excited to launch the collection and to see the way the pieces have been incorporated into the hotel design process. He believes that the collection will become a destination in its own right and will draw people in to explore the spaces and experience the hotel through the art and the artists.
Guests can expect to see significant artworks throughout the property, including SOFTlab’s site-specific installation, Crystallized, in Christina’s restaurant, which is made up of dichromatic film and acrylic and emits different qualities of light as it transforms during the day and into the night.
Ian Davenport’s “In Deep Magenta Mirrored” is also a significant addition to the collection, with lines of acrylic paint poured from the top of the painting onto the floor, where they pool and spread out, introducing a sculptural element to the picture plane.
Waterfall IV by Singaporean artist Dawn Ng showcases a fascinating journey into entropy as the time-lapse film charts the decay of a large block of ice coloured with various pigments.
The Mandala Series by Emma Anna in the hotel’s Jungle Ballroom cocktail bar features large-scale digital collages of orchids and tropical blooms, while Tyler Shields‘ Water Mouths Monochrome series of images inject vibrant colour and playfulness with Ferrari Legs setting the mood on arrival.
In the guest rooms, Singaporean André Wee’s Rojak offers something different from a typical hotel art experience. It is a digitally created piece in augmented reality activated with animation that shows guests how the piece was conceptualized and created.
Mondrian and The Artling will have an ongoing relationship to expand on the collection’s possibilities with programming in the pipeline to bring artists, gallerists, and collectors together.
They will connect with the local and regional art community through events, talks with artists, and making the collection accessible to the public.
The hotel will create an art map for the collection, allowing guests to tour it and learn about the artists, while a curator will offer tours and talks. Robert C. Hauck also shared that there is a huge name in the art world that they are keeping a secret for now and will announce as part of the collection at a later date.
The Mondrian Singapore Duxton is set to open in Q2 2023, and with its permanent art collection, it promises to offer guests an unparalleled experience of integration between art, architecture, and design.