Art Hotel - A temporary art space in downtown Sacramento

The entrance to Art Hotel, Sacramento

On 7th and L Streets in downtown Sacramento there is an abandoned hotel and apartment building set to be demolished in the spring of 2016. Before the building meets its fate 30 artists from around the globe decided to take over the building and make it into a very special art experience! The artists transformed the hallways, kitchens, rooms and restrooms of the building and created a multifaceted art exhibition that most of all encourages the viewer to explore.

A long line of people had already formed at around 12.00 on Saturday February 6^th when the exhibition was about to open its second day. Since I’m always curious about representation and participation due to my studies in cultural science I found it interesting and uplifting that even families with young children, younger couples, elder art fanatics and groups of friends were all there for this special event. It reminded me once more of how important art is in our lives and how many people actually love experiencing art!

When my friends and I got into the exhibition we had to walk through a sort of plastic thick drapery that guided us to the second floor, it felt a little bit like being transported to a different reality; Narnia-ish! The second floor and the whole building was packed with murals, sculptures and installations in different mediums and media. Art was everywhere! The artists had planned it out so that each artist had approximately one room to do what they wanted with. The art in the rooms consisted of traditional hangings on the walls, a lot of graffiti art and murals, installations with soundtracks and skateboarding, photographs, video art as well as political art pieces and so much more! One thing that I thought was interesting was that some objects like stoves and fridges were left in the building and became a part of the art and also created a different atmosphere; since there is not normally fridges and stoves in the white cube of the art gallery!

Dave DeCamilla, "Just in Case Case", enamel on wood and toy gun

Kitchen by artist Jose Di Gregorio

I had many favorite rooms of the art space and one of them was the room that artist Nina Jean Lynch had made. Working in mostly ceramics she creates objects that hint to popular culture and kitsch, and she also has an animal and natural theme to her art. Her art was in one of the kitchens, which suited very well. The shelves were packed with small animal bones and on the walls hung animal furs which came across as very unnerving and awkward in the kitchen. On another shelf was ceramic kitschy food tins placed as well as ceramic bananas, and on the fridge were magnets with the texts “beware of pseudoscience” and “little did they know”; making at least me think of the animal rights movement. Ceramic hens were placed out on some hay behind wire in another part of the kitchen, on the wire was a sign; “QUARANTINE bird flu”, making it somewhat naïve and funny but also serious. The two objects that most people took photographs of were two salt and pepper-ish containers in ceramic on the stove, but the text on them read “salt” and “anti-salt”. The whole kitchen was like a clever mix of black humor, political seriousness and utter weirdness, making it a very memorable experience!

Kitchen done by Nina Jean Lynch

After the exhibition you felt very uplifted and inspired, mostly because of the blitz of creativeness that had just washed over you but also the overall spontaneous feeling of the art. Contemporary art really has so much to offer. And the fact that every room was so different kept your imagination up, the exhibit had something for everyone. A truly remarkable experience.

My friend Tone doing a beautiful sketch in one of the interactive rooms.

If you’re in the Sacramento area I highly suggest that you visit the Art Hotel before it shuts down for good on February 13! If you’re curious why not visit their website at http://m5arts.com/ or check out the hashtag #arthotel916 on Instagram where many visitors have posted pictures and videos!

All photos are taken by me.