21c Museum Hotel Chicago (55 E Ontario) today unveiled a site-specific installation by artist Nick Cave and designer Bob Faust. As a way to bring the energy and impetus of Nick Cave's artwork outside of traditional museum walls, Cave and Faust have created 9 patterns that pair in various ways to result in 16 floors of bespoke installations. Titled Wallworks, the installation is the latest addition to 21c Museum Hotel Chicago’s expansive collection of contemporary art, on display throughout the hotel’s guest rooms and event spaces. The current exhibition on view, This We Believe, features the work of more than 50 notable contemporary artists, and is now open for public visits from 12 – 8 p.m., 7 days a week, free of charge.
Photo Credit: Wallworks, 2020. Nick Cave and Bob Faust. Image courtesy of 21c Museum Hotels
When tasked with activating the elevator lobbies throughout 21c Chicago, Cave and Faust quickly conceived of each landing as part of a portal system to define and make memorable each embarkation and debarkation. Installed in the elevator lobbies on floors 2-17, each is a diptych of two complimentary patterns designed from individual detail photos of Cave's iconic Soundsuits and Tondos. Each photo was chosen for formal reasons, such as color and composition, but also to showcase the variety of materials Cave uses throughout his work, such as synthetic hair, sequined fabric, buttons, wire and vintage toile. The patterns themselves are designed to convey the performative aspects of Cave’s practice, which are difficult to capture in still photography.
“These mini-installations envelope you with good juju. The relationship of pattern and scale to the architectural and compressed space is no accident, it’s an offering,” said Bob Faust. “I like the energy we can get from the remixing process that this work requires,” added Nick Cave. “I have to let go of the direct connection to the original work and embrace the role a simple detail can make for itself.”
One of nine locations that form North America’s only multi-venue museum dedicated to collecting and exhibiting the art of the 21st century, 21c Chicago’s 10,000+ square feet of exhibition space features rotating solo and group exhibitions and installations curated by Museum Director and Chief Curator Alice Gray Stites. The exhibition on view, This We Believe, features the work of more than 50 notable contemporary artists, including Kara Walker, Yinka Shonibare, and Titus Kaphar. The exhibition explores the power and evolution of belief systems—religious, political, economic—and how allegiance to ideology has influenced our current global culture of divisiveness and polarization.
21c Chicago also hosts regular cultural programming, currently offered virtually, enabling guests and the public to deepen their engagement with the contemporary artwork on view. On Tues., May 18 at 6 p.m. CST, 21c Museum Hotel Chicago will partner with the DePaul Art Museum to present a conversation in celebration of International Museum Day. Artist Rodrigo Lara Zendejas, whose work is currently on view as part of the exhibition LatinXAmerican at DePaul Art Museum through August 15, 2021, will be in conversation with DePaul Art Museum Assistant Curator Ionit Behar. For more details and to register for the event, visit https://www.21cmuseumhotels.com/chicago/event/curator-conversations-may-18/.
This We Believe is open for public visits from 12 – 8 p.m., 7 days a week, free of charge. In order to comply with COVID-19 protocols, non-hotel guests are required to make a free reservation online to view the exhibit. Reservations for individuals, couples and families can be made at www.21cchicago.com.
Rooms are now available for reservations with rates starting at $129 per night. Visitors driving to Chicago can receive free parking by using the “Free Self-Parking Package” when booking their stay. Guests can earn and redeem reward points for their stays at 21c Chicago through the Accor Live Limitless (ALL) lifestyle loyalty program.
ABOUT 21c MUSEUM HOTELS
21c Museum Hotels, an award-winning hospitality company based in Louisville, Kentucky, is pushing the boundaries of both the museum and hotel worlds to create a new kind of travel experience. The company was founded as a single property by contemporary art collectors and preservationists Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, whose mission was to share innovative contemporary art with the public and participate in the revitalization of downtown Louisville. The couple opened the first 21c in 2006 along downtown’s West Main Street, rehabilitating a series of 19th century warehouses to create a union of genuine hospitality, thoughtful design and culinary creativity — all anchored by a contemporary art museum. Today, guests can enjoy nine 21c Museum Hotels in Louisville, Kentucky; Cincinnati, Ohio; Bentonville, Arkansas; Durham, North Carolina; Lexington, Kentucky; Nashville, Tennessee, Oklahoma City; Oklahoma; Kansas City, Missouri and Chicago, Illinois. 21c projects are also under development in Des Moines, Iowa and St. Louis, Missouri. The company is equally focused on creating unique, chef-driven restaurants that are as much a part of the community as each hotel. The 21c restaurant portfolio includes; Proof on Main, Metropole, The Hive, Counting House, Lockbox, Mary Eddy’s Kitchen x Lounge, Gray and Dudley, The Savoy, and Garage Bar.
ABOUT ACCOR
Accor is a world-leading augmented hospitality group offering unique experiences in more than 5,000 hotels and residences across 110 destinations. The Group has been acquiring hospitality expertise for more than 50 years, resulting in an unrivaled portfolio of 39 hotel brands, from luxury to economy, supported by one of the most attractive loyalty programs in the world.
ALL, Accor Live Limitless is a daily lifestyle companion that integrates rewards, services and experiences bringing value to everyday life inventing a completely new aspirational way to live limitless.
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About the artists:
Nick Cave is an artist, educator and foremost a messenger, working between the visual and performing arts through a wide range of mediums including sculpture, installation, video, sound and performance. He serves as director of the graduate fashion program at the School of the Art Institute. Cave’s multi-media artworks and performances have been presented at museums and in public spaces all over the world. Cave’s work is part of many public collections, including the Brooklyn Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the High Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Orlando Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Baltimore Museum of Art, among others.
Bob Faust is the principal and creative director for Faust, based in Chicago. His collaborative and non-secular approach to his work results in functionally expressive visual experiences that inspire change and instigate tangible actions. He has been recognized as a design leader nationally and internationally. As well as an artist in his own right, Faust is also the studio/special projects director for artist Nick Cave, where he both collaborates on exhibition design as well as produces Cave’s performance works.
ABOUT FACILITY
Facility is a place. It’s a multi-disciplinary creative space. And it’s home to Cave Studio, Faust Associates, and $oundsuit$hop, while also serving as a creative hub for other artists, artisans, designers and architects. Additionally, Facility plays host to myriad pop-up special projects such as exhibitions, performances and fresh retail experiences.
Facility is a philosophy. It believes that art and design can create peace, build power, and change the world ... that by fostering an environment and community built from your dreams you will wake up daily within your destiny.
Facility is an action agent. It reaches deep into our communities, employing the collective powers of art and design as a means to empowerment and social change. Facility Foundation provides scholarships and opportunities for young, promising and emerging artists, collaborations with fierce, like-minded established artists and partnering with outside, organizations and institutions to galvanize their outreach programming.