Art in hotels, both to admire and to purchase, has become a strong focus in recent years. The Fife Arms in the Scottish Highlands has an impressive art collection including a giant Louise Bourgeois spider in the courtyard, 45 Park Lane in London has regularly changing exhibitions and art tours, Claridges has its own gallery with regularly changing shows, while La Residencia in Mallorca, Spain has 33 original pieces on display by Joan Miró. The luxurious Hotel Savoy, in Florence, is another hotel that takes art seriously by creating suites for artists to stay in and through hosting regular exhibitions in its public spaces.
Within ten minutes of all the important art venues in Florence including the Uffizi (packed with work by Giotto, Botticelli, Leonardo and Caravaggio), the Accademia Gallery (housing Michelangelo’s famous sculpture David) and the Palazzo Strozzi (currently showing a blockbuster Anselm Kiefer exhibition), the Hotel Savoy has been quietly carving out its own art legacy. Their artist residency program is not only about showcasing artwork but also about creating immersive experiences for their guests, offering curated tours, artist talks, and interactive workshops that allow guests to engage with the creative process firsthand.
The hotel is showing a female artist for the first time this spring. London-based painter Annya Sand joins a list of well known international male creatives hosted in its Artist Suites, including Maurizio Cattelan, Anish Kapoor, Y.Kami, Maccapani Missoni, Santiago Calatrava and David La Chapelle, who each also had exhibitions at the hotel or at nearby art institutions.
Abstract Perspectives: Annya Sand’s Tribute To Women, open to hotel guests and visitors, runs until 20 May 2024 and offers an immersive journey into the mystical realms of the artist’s work and her creative process. Her large abstract paintings can be seen throughout the hotel’s public spaces. As a third-generation artist, Annya Sand carries forward the legacies of her father and grandfather before her. Her works are held in international museums, private collections and government institutions, including the Houses of Parliament in London and the UN headquarters in New York for the project “Colors of the Planet in Andorra”, supported by UNESCO. Annya is also cofounder of WAAW (Women Artists’ Art Week) an initiative that encourages art galleries and art institutions to simultaneously showcase exclusively female artists on their own premises for at least one week.
Annya enjoys making shapes come together before her and watching them evolve and her technique is element based. She tends to use her bare hands when working with oils and acrylics, as she needs to feel the painting in order to truly adjust
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Katy Perry is the reigning queen of the Mediterranean. Come summer, you can count on the emergence of paparazzi pics depicting the pop star smooching fiancé Orlando Bloom in Sardinia, catching dinner after a day of yachting in Dubrovnik, and jetskiing with her daughter Daisy in Saint-Tropez. It’s no wonder Perry vacations so hard, given the relentless pace of her music career. Later this week, she’ll end a six-year stint as judge on American Idol, and she wrapped up her wildly popular Las Vegas residency a few months ago. On a recent episode of Idol, she teased a new single, and her next album is expected later this year.
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