Supercity York Aparthotel on Micklegate is PickArt's inaugural location in Northern England and is a very special project for us.
The Lobby has been designed in collaboration with Kinetic AI, an Oxford-based architectural practice that is dedicated to blurring the lines between architecture, movement, and intelligence. Inspired by Lina Bo Bardi's design from the 1960s, they designed the glass easels to hold the artworks in the lobby. As the project progresses, the easels will come to life and start rotating and additional elements such as moving lights and seating will be added.
5 York artists are currently featured in the space, each bringing their own authentic voice.
Donna Maria Taylor's mixed media pieces portray York's landmarks that the guests of the hotel can discover during their stay: St Williams College, St Leonards Place, St Mary’s tower, and of course Micklegate Bar located mere metres away.
Kareem Baqai's artworks bridges the gap between architectural elements in the space and the visual art it holds.
Timothy Marvell's art piece is actually a movie, made accessible by the hand painted QR-code in the centre of the exhibition. Playing with the notion of Still Life, Marvell brings motion to it in the video work and then strips it back yet again in each of the pieces surrounding the QR-code. Each one of them is a still frame from the video finished manually by the artist.
Rae George's artworks come from her Rebel Flora collection. They are full of passion and urgency.
Ufy's limited edition signed artworks in contrast are quiet and genuine.
The only artist not local to York is Pavel Kir. He is a long-time friend of PickArt and we included his artwork Birdie in recognition of his early support and to provide a visual contract to Kinetic AI's design language of soft tones and rounded edges.
All of the artworks are available for discover and sale through the accompanying QR codes and on this page.
