Artplus Hotel is a joint initiative between the Sebbag family of ORS Ltd. and the Atlas chain of boutique hotels. Artplus hotel has marked one of its primary agenda's to promote and expose contemporary Israeli art in a variety of ways.
Artplus Hotel is a culture centre for art lovers and art professionals, both Israeli and international. As such, it hosts an array of events dedicated to contemporary Israeli art. From professional guided tours in the hotel and in galleries and museums in Tel Aviv, to the extensive library of art books and catalogs in the hotel lobby, to regular invitations to exhibitions and artist studios, to gala events for the art world, to art fairs, lectures and performances, all taking place in Artplus Hotel and open to the public.
All works displayed in the hotel are of direct interaction to the architecture of the space, allowing for a unique experience that goes beyond a simple work hung on a wall, whether through video- art, installations or site-specific works.
The display of works from the Doron Sebbag collection in the hotel lobby and public areas include some of Israel's most prominent contemporary artists, from Sigalit Landau (which will represent Israel at the next Venice Biennale), Tzadok Ben David and Ori Gersht (both Israeli born, London based artists), Sharon Glazberg, Tal Shochat, Talia Keinan and Uri Nir.
In addition, each of the five corridors of the hotel floors has a commissioned site specific work by a prominent contemporary Israeli artist: Doron Rabina, Ollaf Kuneman, Tali Ben Bassat, Maya Attoun and Ayelet Carmi. The result is a different atmosphere for each floor, with every artist expressing his own personal vision which relates to his or her own body of work.
As an extension to the latter, the hotel has embarked on inviting young Israeli artists to create site specific works in the rooms of the hotel. Here the idea aspires again to host works which take over the space of the room, by so offering a one of a kind experience to the hotel guests. The "Room Project" is an on-going project that has been launched by the two rooms created by artists Yochai Matos (room 107) and Elad Kopler (room 201).
The latest event in Artplus Hotel was an art fair called "All in 100$", taking place for one day only, on February 25th, 12:00-16:00.
The fair hosted 12 young and trendy contemporary Israeli artists which were selling their work for extremely low prices. Similarly to discount shops called "All in 1$", not all the works were in that exact price tag, however the name of the fair indicates that the prices were substantially low in comparison to prices in the art market and that all the works for sale were in fact a true bargain. The works in the sale ranged from sketches to photography, to sculpture, to oil paintings, digital art, water colors and etchings. All of the artists participating were handpicked and represent an exclusive group of artists which proved excellence both commercially and artistically, being the most promising and cutting edge artists in Israel today.
The aim of this art fair was to allow every art lover to purchase affordable artwork of the highest quality and at the same to help promote and advance these young artists and allow them to gain a substantial profit from their sales, which goes fully, 100% to the artists themselves (the hotel does not take percentages of the sales). The artists participating in the fair were: Eden Bannet, Ayelet Ben Dor, Yael Efrati, Lahli Fruheling, Elad Larom, Hila Laviv, Haran Mendel, Liav Mizrahi, Yoav Shavit, Shai Yehezkeli.
By Elza Spector