[caption id="attachment_5095" align="alignnone" width="560" caption="Artist Shepard Fairey"][/caption]
Russell Simmons and Shepard Fairey hosted Kiss My Art, a private dinner and reception at the Mondrian in South Beach on December 2. On a private balcony, overlooking the pool, bay, and oversized lamps designed by Marcel Wanders, Whitewall ran into President and CEO of Morgans Hotel Group, Fred Kleisner. We sat down to chat with him about his unwavering support for Simmons’ art foundation RUSH Philanthropic, Shepard Fairey, and about how contemporary art has become a staple in luxury hotels.
WHITEWALL: You’ve been a supporter of the RUSH Philanthropic for quite some time. How did your relationship with Russell Simmons and the foundation start?
FRED KLEISNER: Our company is about experiences that focus on art, music, fashion, and fun. That is Russell Simmons. Russell is so on brand for a company like ours that when you get to know him you see this unbelievable heart that he’s extended to those who can learn and grow through art. I can’t think of a better foundation for us to support. We’re pleased to ride on his coattails. Russell and Tangie Murray, the head of the foundation, know that when he calls me the answer is always yes, simple as that.
WW: Are you familiar with the artist Shepard Fairey who’s hear tonight?
FK: Oh yes, very much so. We feature a Morgans curated CD every year of new, emerging artists and very high demand artists combined and last year Shepard Fairey designed the CD album for us. Shepard and his wife Amanda have been dear friends of Morgans.
WW: This week Morgans Hotel Group is planning a number of events to take place during Art Basel Miami Beach. Will you get a chance to visit the fairs and look for any works to add to your collection?
FK: My wife and I are active contemporary art collectors. We’ve never left Art Basel without something. The favorite in our collection is a Mel Bochner piece titled “Complain” that we bought two years ago. It is the focal point of our living room in New York. We live in the East Village and we rotate our art collection between our residence in San Juan, in the East Village in New York, and on Bainbridge Island in Washington. This is something that, while it’s part of our business, it’s also part of my interest as well.
WW: Contemporary art collections have become a staple for hotel properties.
FK: We just opened a new property in Boston, Ames. I draw a bridge to our original hotel in Manhattan, Morgans. In both hotels art coalesces the public space of the hotel. In the case of Ames, a marvelous artist did in the entire staircase that connects the two-story restaurant and bar featuring curiosity boxes. These are Plexi boxes of all different forms of art – mostly outside art and found art. In Morgans, we went back to Andree Putman after 40 years and had Andree and her children (who work with her) redesign the total gut out and refresh of Mogans. When I looked at the design I said, “Well this is wonderful, this is classic Andree Putman. The Mapplethorpe’s are really going to look great in every room. But the lobby is small and no one is going to walk in and find it jaw-dropping.” It needed something jaw dropping and something in the way of art.
So Andree went to a group called Vitrine de Trafik in Paris and over an eight week period they installed in the ceiling 420 LCD boards. They stretched a tight canvas in front of the boards and installed a touch panel in the lobby where we have 22 patters, four colors, and eight rhythms that create a pattern in the ceiling. When you go into the hotel you can touch the screen to create your pattern, give yourself a password, and whenever you come into the hotel you can create your own version of the lobby. It’s classic interactive art.
In this hotel, the circular staircase is a $1 million piece of art done by Marcel wanders. That’s the money shot in this hotel and it is art. Shepard Fairey is into pattern and he noticed those patterns that are repeated in the hotel that is the signature of Marcel wanders and commented on that to me tonight.
