ARTSPACE UNCOVERED

The Art Of Claridge’s

A dramatic new gallery space is providing a showcase for contemporary art a showcase for contemporary art

Words by

TEO VAN DEN BROEKE

is page: Pieces from Damien Hirst’s Sunshine (Complex Relationships Explained Simply) exhibition at Claridge’s ArtSpace

amien Hirst famously said: ‘I think as an artist you have to reinvent yourself every day.’ e same, it turns out, applies to hotels. Christened during London’s Frieze art fair in October 2021, Claridge’s ArtSpace is a bold new gallery concept situated beneath the bulk of the grade II listed building, which has arguably been better known for putting up artists during the fair than it has for displaying their work.

Designed by the king of minimalism himself, John Pawson, the cavernous space sits in the hotel’s painstakingly renovated basement, has a separate entrance on Brook’s Mews, and – from the exhibits shown thus far – looks set to become one of the most important homes for bold contemporary art in London.

Claridge’s ArtSpace opened with an exhibition of new works by Hirst. Titled Sunshine (Complex Relationships Explained Simply), the pieces resembled giant pipe cleaners, transformed into fantastical animals in saturated hues. More recently, the gallery hosted an exhibition by New York and Brazil-based artist Vik Muniz. A Brief History of Art featured some of the artist’s most celebrated works from the past 20 years. Taking inspiration from masterpieces by

the world’s greatest artists, the show included a triptych take on Botticelli’s e Birth of Venus, made out of bits of junk, and an impression of Caravaggio’s Cupid crafted D from scraps of old toys. e rapid roll-out of the programme shows no signs of slowing. With a new curator overseeing each exhibition, this audacious new project has all the ingredients to become a bona de art-world player in time for this year’s Frieze. Next is a thrilling new exhibition from Les Lalanne – Claude Lalanne (19242019) and François-Xavier Lalanne (1927-2008) – whose work has reached iconic status in the past decade thanks to a major retrospective at Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2010. During their lifetime, the duo garnered many a highfashion fan, from Yves Saint-Laurent and Tom Ford to Marc Jacobs. Claridge’s ArtSpace and fellow Mayfair gallery Ben

‘This audacious new project has all the ingredients to become a bona fi de art-world player’ Brown Fine Arts will play host to a collection of works su used with ‘surrealist associations and playful ingenuity’ – think a bar in the shape of a hippo or a cabbage with chicken’s feet (Les Lalanne are known for blending humour and elegance – which may explain their fashionable following). From a world-beating hotel to an international art hub? Now that’s what you call reinvention. M Free entry, open to guests and other visitors. Les Lalanne: Makers of Dreams runs 28 April-29 July and a new co ee shop will open in late summer. Find the Claridge’s ArtSpace entrance on the newly restored Claridge’s facade on Brook’s Mews

Clockwise from above: Vik Muniz’s exhibition A Brief History of Art at ArtSpace; Nouveaux Moutons (Brebis), 1995, and Hippopotame I, 1968/1998, both by François Xavier Lalanne