Bespoke Commissions for hotels and Historic buildings

Nicola Green is a critically acclaimed artist and social historian. She has established an international reputation for her ambitious and insightful projects, collaborating with President Obama (In Seven Days…) and the world’s religious leaders (Encounters) and known for groundbreaking projects such as the Diaspora Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and as a Principal Artist of The World Reimagined. Green’s work is socially engaged and designed to connect with a wide audience.

Green uses her uniquely powerful storytelling ability to craft bespoke commissions for private clients. She constantly reinvents and reimagines portraiture, creating memorable legacy works, whether her subject be a person, a city or a building.

Green has successfully worked with a number of hotels and historic buildings to create artworks that direct and enhance the experience of visitors and leave a lasting impression on guests. Green’s work spans a number of techniques and mediums, including pattern, textiles, drawing, painting, gilding, photography and printing as well as her unique Quasar Frames™. The approach will often be informed by the story of the building, and Green incorporates the use of archival records, technical drawings, photographs, newspapers and any other materials that can help capture the heritage and story of her subject.

In the case of Great Scotland Yard, the Beaumont Hotel, and Rhodes House, the architectural history represents a broader story of the identity, history and culture of a place (please see below).

Green’s process is entirely bespoke and unusually collaborative - clients are welcomed into Green’s studio process and invited to have as much (or as little) input as they desire. Green works closely with her clients to encapsulate the most important aspects of their unique story. In the case of hotels, Green is able to work with pre-existing interior designs and in collaboration with designers so that art is interwoven into the very fabric of the hotel. By strategically placing artworks in bedrooms, corridors, and communal spaces Green adds depth and personality to the environment,.Her new partnership with Atelier Zuleika represents a commitment to building truly valuable art collections in hotels.

Previous Commissions

The Great Scotland Yard Hotel

Nicola Green was asked to create a series of artworks for the Great Scotland Yard Hotel. Located in the historic St James’s district in the heart of Westminster,  the Grade-II listed property is one of London’s most cherished and iconic buildings. As it was transformed into a hotel, the owners sought Green out, based on her reputation for taking on ambitious projects of social-historical significance. Green was commissioned to make several bodies of work exploring the most important and interesting narratives from the building's rich history, visually telling the story of Scotland Yard. This includes: Service, a large installation in the hotel lobby that anchors the entire project, a series of works for the bedrooms and bathrooms, a portrait of Lillian Rose Goldstein, the so-called Bob Haired Bandit for the forty elephants bar, and series of bespoke works for the No1 Great Scotland Yard Townhouse.

Rhodes House

Green was commissioned by the Rhodes House to create I Am Because We Are in collaboration with ten Scholars and Fellows from the Rhodes Trust and partnership programmes communities. Green worked with a team of researchers, conducting interviews to draw out the stories of their outstanding work, their heritage and their experiences.

I Am Because We Are is designed to face the history of the Rhodes Trust through these scholars’ lived experiences, which have been woven through Green’s bespoke vinyl patterns and framed textile artworks. The history of colonialism is all of our history, it is only by facing up to historic injustices together, that we can create a more equitable future. In shining a light on each of the scholars’ specific stories and how all of our histories interconnect, this exhibition embodies a hopefulness and a message of positivity for the future. 

The Beaumont Hotel

The Beaumont Hotel is located in the prestigious Mayfair neighbourhood of London, known for its elegance and luxury. Green was commissioned to create a series of works that combined classic art-deco elegance with contemporary artistry.

The Beaumont was built in 1926 as a garage and car showroom designed by renowned architect Wimperis, Simpson, and Guthrie. It also features an iconic public sculpture by Anthony Gormley. Green focused on creating works that would situate the unusual facade of the hotel alongside other iconic landmarks in London.

Green created a series of London maps inspired by archival records from the late 19th century - a time when London underwent a rapid transformation, becoming the largest city in the world. She has highlighted some of the city’s most significant landmarks with diamond dust, and the entire map is lavished in 24k gold leaf. The river has connected London politically, socially and economically to the rest of the world for thousands of years. It symbolises the flow of goods, money and people over time. The artworks not only captures a specific place but also evokes a sense of timelessness and the river's role as a lifeline, a source of inspiration, and a symbol of the city's rich history and dynamic present. Green created a series of complementary pieces depicting cherished and iconic buildings from across the capital including the Beaumont itself.

The Dance of Colour

The Dance of Colour is a visual exploration of identity and heritage through the colourful lens of the Rio Carnival in Brazil. 

This work embraces a day where normal power structures are temporarily suspended and re-imagined, and, in that moment, the shackles of repression, history, hierarchies and rules are cast aside. Carnival is an enduring and powerful site of both resistance and joy, and Green’s portraits are a vibrant visual metaphor for the possibilities of human understanding and the interwoven nature of cultural heritage. 

Bespoke patterns

Green works with her clients to get to the heart of their story, she incorporates the use of non-verbal communication, body language, and semiotics in combination with photographs, family heirlooms, textiles, architecture, and cartography to get to truly embody her subject. She consolidates these elements, utilising heraldry and symbols to create a modern take on a coat of arms and transforming the design into an entirely bespoke and unique pattern.

Nicola was drawn to the idea of creating unique patterns because they form the basis of our understanding of the universe, they allow us to make sense of the world around us and take comfort from discernible and predictable regularity. The intertwining of natural organic patterns with the fundamental concepts of mathematics and science has fascinated human beings for millennia. Human beings have an innate drive to create patterns, from the bold and geometric to the delicate and painterly, we seem to have a desire to decorate. Its essential to how we express ourselves and our identity, and patterns have an almost transformative power to communicate beyond words.