21c Museum Hotels is thrilled to announce the opening of its property in the heart of downtown St Louis, housed in the 95-year-old, 10-story, Renaissance Revival-style YMCA building.
Mandarin Oriental is delighted to announce the development of a new luxury resort in Sardinia, located in the north-east of the island in the heart of Costa Smeralda.
The property enters a new era as 21c St. Louis, boasting over 14,000 square feet of museum exhibition space featuring rotating, curated exhibitions which will be open 7 days per week, 24 hours per day, free of charge, along with site-specific art installations commissioned in response to the site and the design of the building, and 173 artistically appointed rooms outfitted with exclusive artworks from artists who have strong ties to Missouri including Carmon Colangelo, Collin W. Elliott, Brandon Forrest Frederick, Bethanie Irons and La Vispera.
Located a stone's throw from iconic city landmarks including the City Museum, Stifel Theatre and CITYPARK stadium, 21c St. Louis features multiple site-specific art installations created for 21c St. Louis and sited throughout the building’s public areas.
Installations include O by Serkan Özkaya – an eight-foot diameter, spherical orb, filled with distilled water, which magnifies, diffracts, and alters the reflections of the surrounding hotel reception area. Fallen Fruit, the artist duo David Allen Burns and Austin Young, created an immersive installation, sourced in and inspired by St. Louis, spanning three floors within the property’s historic main stairwell.
Visitors are able to walk amidst the various elements of the installation, including custom-designed wallcovering, carpeting, chandeliers, and wall sculptures, while experiencing the artwork entitled The Way Out West. Missouri native Nick Cave and partner Bob Faust have combined elements from Cave’s recent retrospective exhibition, Forothermore, to create a kaleidoscopic artwork, Until We Meet Again.
Installed on the domed ceiling of the Good Press café, imagery in the artwork is both joyful and hopeful, while also referencing current issues and challenges. Located in the outdoor amphitheater on the building’s east side, Viewfinder is an interactive sculpture by St. Louis-based artist and architect Chandler Ahrens; it was curated and produced in partnership with Laumeier Sculpture Park and Via Partnership. Through multiple viewing ports in the sculpture, visitors on the elevated patio can watch reflected tableaus of the surrounding architectural elements and busy streetscape.
21c St. Louis also opens with three temporary group exhibitions, presented in the museum galleries and public spaces on the first and second floors, including the major inaugural exhibition, curated by 21c Chief Curator and Museum Director, Alice Gray Stites, Revival: Digging Into Yesterday, Planting Tomorrow. The group exhibition of 70 artworks by 47 artists from 17 countries explores the use of historical sources in contemporary art, highlighting how looking at the past clarifies the present and reimagines the future.
Featured artists include Myrlande Constant, Jeannette Ehlers, Isaac Julien, Kapwani Kiwanga, Hew Locke, Ebony G Patterson, Duke Riley, Yinka Shonibare, Hank Willis Thomas, and Kehinde Wiley. The wide range of painting, sculpture, photography, video, textiles, and multimedia installations on view deploy visual allure to illuminate how the past echoes in the present moment, as well as into tomorrow. Revival: Digging into Yesterday, Planting Tomorrow will remain on view at 21c St. Louis through June 2024.
“Reviving complex histories from a global spectrum of sources that are alternately inspiring and challenging, the artworks on view highlight how paths forward often lead back, and then through, summoning reframing, transformation, and transcendence. Listening to these echoes can spur a deeper understanding of where we have come from, where we are, and where we are going. As Isaac Julien says of his video installation, Lessons of the Hour, ‘these historical linkages to the present perhaps hold keys to the future’”, shares Stites.
On the first floor of 21c St. Louis are two additional exhibitions featuring local, national, and international artists. Presented in the lobby gallery, Reflections, Refractions: Space, Form and Light features painting, sculpture, and video works in connection with Serkan Ozkaya’s permanent, site-specific commission, O. Featured artists include Astrid Krogh, Alyson Shotz, Rob Wynne, and Carmon Colangelo, who also created artworks for the guest rooms.
The billiards room on the lobby level is dedicated to 21c’s Elevate program, which showcases the work of local and regional artists. Curated by 21c St Louis Museum Manager Angie Villa, this inaugural Elevate exhibit presents works by St. Louis-based artists Quinn Antonio Briscoe and Yvonne Osei. A series of programs related to the exhibitions, including artist lectures, workshops, tours, performances, film screenings, and more, is forthcoming.
