A Week in July: Roger Smith Life takes on London
Posted on 12. Jul, 2011 by danikadruttman in Arts, Community, Hotel
By Danika Druttman
There are few I would rather take on a virtual trip home to London (and a little bit beyond) with me, than Roger Smith Life.
To begin…
First Thursday Private Views 07.07.11
White Cube Hoxton Square
Variants, by Robert Rhode
These are sequential stills from one of a series of 5 animated films.
In this particular animation, the Composer is attempting to kill the piano.
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Daniel Blau, London
Beware of the God, by Neal Fox
This show depicts iconic characters from pop culture, the likes of Johnny Cash, Jean Genet, Francis Bacon, people who have ‘shaped our collective conscious’. They are portrayed though the eye of mythological narration, much like saints depicted on traditional church windows, these are also presented on stain glass windows.
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While on our Thursday evening expedition we came across the most lovely house on Vyner Street in East London (the area is the hub of London’s contemporary art scene). |
Weekend in Devon 07.08.11-07.10.11
Dartmouth is a little country town in the South of England, it is exactly out of a movie. The Royal Naval College, where all officers in the Royal Navy are trained, is also in Dartmouth.
Dartmouth |
Local Pasty Shop |
A little bit of English countryside |
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Tate Modern 07.12.11
Joan Miró Exhibition
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View from the Tate across to St Pauls |
Sculpture at the end of the Millennium Bridge |
07.13.11
Gagosian, Britannia St
Takashi Murakami
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My guide for the morning. |
Tracey Emin at the Hayward Gallery
The show spans over her career so far, the patchwork pieces (image 1) were beautiful. Unfortunately it was hard to get photos because the guards were doing there job properly.
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Still from video piece |
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Cool things around the Southbank Center
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Wall to wall graffiti |
Man sits in Duck |
Saatchi Gallery
Shape of Things to Come: New Sculpture
Headless wonder…? |
Dirk Skreber’s Untitled (Crash 1) |
Summit by Kris Martin (note the tiny little cross on the peak- possibly a nod to man’s attempts at conquering nature, a little like planting the american flag on the moon..) |
Frogs Legs to celebrate Bastille Day 07.14.11
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Thomas Struth at The Whitechapel Gallery 07.15.11
Struth’s version |
My version-a building on Fenchurch St |
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Interesting fact-oid-
The City of London has someone on staff specifically to maintain the little stars on the bollards. Each one is hand painted on with small water color brushes. |
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The Turner Prize 2009 by Danika Druttman
Posted on 28. Jan, 2010 by BrianSimpson in Arts, Community
The Turner Prize 2009 may be over, but I am still thinking about it. While back in London for the holidays, I popped in to Tate Britain to check out the exhibition of the shortlisted artists. To give you a little back story about The Prize, it was founded by The Tate in 1984, and has emerged as one of the most well publicized and controversial art prizes around. Its intention is to highlight developments in contemporary British art. The exhibition itself, is designed to enable the public to view and inspire dialogue about the work of the shortlisted artists. Over the years the Turner Prize has developed a reputation for encouraging the debate ‘is it art?’ with their annual pickings. YBA’s (Young British Artist’s) have over the years populated a notable percentage of the artists included (Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley, for starters). They sculpted and ultimately iconicized the 1990′s British contemporary art scene; high on volume, charisma and ‘boxless ideas’, Sensationalist is a word often used to describe the YBA’s and their art.
In spite of The Turner Prize’s reputation, 2009 can not be described as loud. I thought it was elegant and thoughtful; here are the pieces that I enjoyed the most.
Lucy Skaer
The skull of a sperm whale is no doubt breathtaking in its own right, however, I feel like the point of this piece was more to do with the art of viewing. Being forced to see the piece in stages, through slits in the wall, slowed down the viewing experience. Certainly in my case, the effect was that it made me look, REALLY look, at Skaer’s work. As a result I can say that this was my favorite piece. I invested the most of myself into the experience, in order to attempt to grasp the meaning of this work.
Richard Wright (winner)
What a grand number, yet delicate, subtle and mortally beautiful. Mortal is an appropriate word to use, Wright’s work is painted straight onto a wall, and when the show closes, the piece is painted over (the same goes for the exhibited piece at Tate Britain). The ephemeral quality represents a rebellion against the art institution yes, clearly, but for me personally, it was a curious experience to know that this was almost definitely the last time I was ever going to see this work again. It may be a shout, but I am going to suggest it anyway, many types of beauty are fleeting, yet this is also the type that is most memorable, and that is how I feel about this work.
This makes me think of an artist that we will be showing at The LAB in April, Morgan O’hara. Her work also has this finite quality, it lives for as long as it remains on the wall and once it has been painted over, we must rely on our memories and documentation to refer back to her work of art.
Lastly, you’ll see in the video that I included a little footage of the message boards, intended for the public to voice their opinions. What a pleasure to take the time to read through people’s thoughts, be them honest, funny, unimpressed, thrilled, and everything in between. To me, it highlights the continued importance of dialogue about contemporary art, whether you are in it or not.
About > Danika Druttman
Connecting two digital hubs, why I came to London
Posted on 07. Dec, 2009 by AdamWallace in Community, Hotel
Hi Everyone, Adam Wallace (@adwal) here from London. I came here on a very last minute trip, not a lot of people knew I was going and I wanted to just take a second to explore with you why I came to London and why the Roger Smith Hotel is interested in connecting with London. It short, I saw that London has become a hub for the digital scene in Europe and the Roger Smith Hotel has become a hub for the digital scene in New York, so there seemed to be a clear opportunity to connect.
From New York over the past three months I have been able to see that there is a vibrant digital scene in the UK that is centered in London. The series of events that led me to a focus on the UK was when eConsultancy, a UK based Blog and community of digital marketers, wrote a profile piece on us at the Roger Smith Hotel. It was not the piece that they wrote, but the buzz that came after it. I realized how much credibility and influence they had and turned my attention to the UK. From there I modorated a great round table event that they put on in NYC and then started seeing other great things that were coming out of UK.
We became connected with Sarah Prevette who is the founder of Sprouter, a global online community of entrepreneurs. She hosted a few events with us where many of the people she brought in had ties to the UK. From her we met David Blumenstien, who led us to more ties in the UK digital scene. From David we got introduced to Chinwag, which is an organization which connects the UK digital scene. If you want to see just how vibrant the UK scen is, just take a look at their website’s list of events just for this week. The Roger Smith then hosted two events with Chinwag’s Digital Mission to NYC put on by the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
Well, you get the idea, all signs have been pointing to UK as being the hub. So when Sarah Prevette invited the Roger Smith to be a part of a series of event here, it was clear that this is the place to be. In addition to furthering connections between NYC and London with these organizations, tonight there is a Microsoft BizSpark hoilday party and tomorrow I’m very excited to be a part of SproutUp London which is the book launch party for Gary Vaynerchuk‘s Crush It. It is going to be a very exciting few days and I am happy for the Roger Smith Hotel to be representing in London!
Following London I will be in Paris for Le Web (more to come on that soon!).
Why the Roger Smith is in London
GMP Class of 2008 Dinner in London 2009
Posted on 18. Nov, 2009 by AdamWallace in Community, Hotel
Hi everyone it is Ek Wongleecharoen from the Roger Smith Hotel. I just got back from the World Travel Market in London, where I joined my fellow classmates from the Cornell General Managers Program from 2008. We had a great dinner at Paul’s hotel, the Crown Plaza and it was great to reconnect with the group. We missed the rest of the class who could not join us and wish they could have been there. I look forward to connecting with all in the group soon, maybe next time it will be at the Roger Smith Hotel : ) Enjoy the pictures and video! – EK
Lily’s Announces Chef Daniel Mowles
Posted on 12. Aug, 2009 by admin in Events, Hotel, Lily's Restaurant
Lilys Restaurant (501 Lexington Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets) is proud to announce that Daniel Mowles, has accepted the position of Chef de Cuisine at the beloved mid-town restaurant. Mowles, received his culinary education at the renowned Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Institute in London where he finished top of his class. His latest position was at the very popular Setai Hotel in Miami.
Mowles brings a bold and innovative New American Cuisine with fresh local flavors to the table at Lily’s.
