Drake Hotel Modern Wing
Location: 1150 Queen St. West
Interior: Design Agency
Architects: Diamond Schmitt Architects
Drake Design Team: Joyce Lo, Carlo Colacci
Artists: Stephanie Temma Hier, Malik McKoy, Miranda Forrester, Melanie Luna, Saimaiyu Akesuk with Angela Aula and Oscar Flores, Owen Marshall, Micah Lexier, Sarah Alinia Ziazi, Luke VanH, Jasmine Cardenas, Raoul Olou, Toko Hosoya, Greg Ito, Theresa Himmer, and Marcel Dzama.
Photography: Kayla Rocca, Brandon Barré, and Alison Postma
While We’re Here
Hotels posses a certain mystery, in part, because the doors are always open. Guests from across the globe, near and far, in one collective space going about their day. Art has a unique power to bridge the gap, connect strangers, and stimulate curiosity. The artist, their process, materiality, and source of inspiration make room for discussion. Conversations generate ideas, encourage understanding, and build community. It is in these works, works that inspire conversation and learning, that we find space to connect with strangers.
Curated by Ashley Mulvihill
Essay by Tatum Dooley
Hotels represent a contained world—one where you can get everything you need without stepping outside. A rotation of food all hours of the day, thousands of channels of television and movies, a bed two times larger than you’re accustomed to, showers with good pressure and an exhaustive amount of gels, soaps, and creams. The concierge is there to meet any needs that arise outside the bounds of the standard fares and the bar in the lobby is well-stocked with people looking to make your acquaintance.
The Drake Modern Wing takes things a step further—including art in the necessities of life found within the confines of a hotel. The inaugural collection is self-referential and refreshing, reflecting the space it’s housed. Stephanie Temma Hier’s two-dimensional painting captures the essence of hotel living. Hier incorporates hotel staples (toothbrushes, slippers, complimentary soaps and towels) in the sculptural frame, paired with a visceral and carnal painting of fingers grasping sheets. The retro colour palette harks back to a design scheme that once might have been found at a hotel like this one.
The art in The Drake’s Modern Wing goes beyond decoration and instead sparks a conversation, bringing everyone closer together through a shared visual palette. Art provides an ice breaker of the first order, allowing debate, delight, and discussion to exist simultaneously. A centrepiece of the collection, Saimaiyu Akesuk’s work is translated directly on the wall. The bold, saturated colours become a part of the architecture—a backdrop that doesn’t fade into the background.
With everything provided for you, time moves a bit slower in hotels. Life is a bit more leisurely without the tedium of everyday rote tasks. Malik McKoy’s animation echoes this pace, the surreal scene moving at a barely noticeable speed. Surrealistic and delightful, McKoy’s work uses the familiar medium of television to introduce unfamiliar territory. Micah Lexier’s exploration of letters and forms likewise shifts an understanding of everyday forms into a realm of the surreal. Playful and exacting, Lexier’s workbook reminds of school days—minus the misery.
The art found within the Modern Wing mirrors hotels’ focus on materiality. I think of a hotel primarily as a site of touch: the firmness of the front desk, leaned on while checking in, eyes gravitating to the screen behind the counter; the softness of the bed; the streakless mirrors, reflecting intricate tiles. The plethora of materials is replicated in Melanie Luna’s work. The large-scale work includes carvings, reflection, and paint that looks like it’s slipping away. Luna’s work walks the viewer through the sensation of touch, via the eye.
The materials found in Miranda Forrester’s painting are also central to the work. Painted on PVC, Forrester’s work creates a feeling of being inside and outside of something. You can look through the work, or take an extra minute and look at it. There, you see yourself reflected amongst silhouettes of the body and flora. The frame and stretcher bars are on full display, allowing a glimpse at the mechanics of the work.
The element of the temporary within hotels is ripe with possibility—you can be a new person for a short period of time. The potential for the future feels endless, the contained setting allows for a buffer to the rest of the world. Art provides the same portal—all you have to do is look.