HLK Art Group partnered with Manhattan-based Refinery Hotel to curate a collection of art on view throughout the property, including their storefront gallery, Hatbox as well as host an art opening. Open to the public and hotel guests, HLK’s gallery curation featured six New York-based artists such as Laurent Elie Badessi, Nicole Cohen, David Paul Kay and Christophe Pouget. Select artists were featured on every floor, providing hotel guests with the unique opportunity to discover and purchase artwork.
“I was drawn toward these six contemporary artists for their artistic talent as well as their personal stories,” said art advisor and curator, Heidi Lee Komaromi of HLK Art Group, who has executed curatorial projects for Refinery Hotel in the past, in addition to SoHo House West Hollywood and The Standard East Village. She continued, “Refinery Hotel’s industrial-chic design makes it the perfect space to bring these artists together for a cohesive exhibition that reflects the beauty of New York City and unlocks the city’s incredible creativity to the guests who experience the art.”
The exhibition titled BE FREE, takes its name from the two-minute video installation that will play on The Hatbox’s widescreen projector during the pop-up. Created by Nicole Cohen, whose work is currently showing at the Frieze Los Angeles art fair, BE FREE reflects on feelings of disorientation upon relocation to a new city, pulling inspiration from historical spaces, vintage interiors, period rooms and transformative places.
Among the artists featured in this limited-time exhibit is fourth-generation French photographer Laurent Elie Badessi, ahead of his Age of Innocence exhibit’s American debut at The National Arts Club later this year. Badessi’s black and white photography has been displayed across sixty-foot billboards in Times Square and featured in museum and private collections across Milan, Paris, Beijing and beyond.
Visitors will also get to see scaled down versions of David Paul Kay’s massive murals, known to take over city blocks, Christophe Pouget’s collages of the city’s most iconic landmarks, Jeremy Silva’s colorful blown glass incorporating unexpected flora and fauna, and the photographic art of JP Kadzinski, zooming in on the urban landscape’s smallest details.
“This collaboration will help Refinery Hotel guests discover and purchase local artwork,” says Tyler Dubs, General Manager of Refinery Hotel. “The program will educate our guests about the city’s diverse art community and amplify their experience within our hotel.”
HLK Art Group has curated dozens of art exhibitions and has helped acquire and appraise hundreds of works of art by emerging and blue chip artists. HLK Art Group collaborated with Fremin Gallery as part of a larger partnership to feature art throughout the Refinery Hotel.
