Brand voice art Installation for The Blackstone, A Renaissance Hotel.

1. THE
BLACKSTONE HOTEL
Art Program
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February 2008

2. Blackstone Hotel Art Program
Beginning in 2006, Joel Straus Consulting (JSC) was selected to design and implement
the art program for the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. The Blackstone Hotel,
owned by Sage Hospitality Resources, a privately held hotel and restaurant company
based in Denver and renovated by architects Lucien Lagrange and the Gettys Group, is
centrally located on Michigan Avenue in Chicago’s downtown Loop district.
JSC customized the Blackstone Hotel’s art program, incorporating cutting-edge new
media work, contemporary photography and painting, and high-quality graphics by
world renowned artists. JSC’s intent is to illuminate Chicago’s urban landscape and play
off of the Blackstone Hotel’s rich history.
JSC’s unique program incorporates cutting-edge new media work, stimulating
photography, contemporary painting and high quality graphics. JSC’s intent is to
emphasize Chicago’s powerful urban landscape and play off of the Blackstone Hotel’s
colorful history.
The Blackstone Hotel is located on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Balbo Street in
the heart of historic downtown Chicago. This 23-story hotel was built from 1908 to
1910 and designed by Marshall and Fox. The hotel was named for Timothy Blackstone, a
noted Chicago business executive and politician, who served as the founding president
of the Union Stock Yards, president of the Chicago and Alton Railroad, and mayor of La
Salle, Illinois.
For the Blackstone’s guestrooms, suites, public spaces, and corridors, JSC combined the contemporary with the historic, carefully selecting
unique, contemporary urban images to integrate the past and the present.

3. Public Spaces
Considered the city's best example of a turn-of-the-century luxury hotel, the Blackstone represents an excellent and rare example of the
Modern French style of Beaux-Arts architecture. In the recent renovation, many of the Blackstone’s unique public areas have been faith-
fully restored. JSC’s art program plays upon the ornate, decorative elements of the original architecture, embellishing them with contempo-
rary urban imagery and video art. JSC chose pieces and frames which enhance the traditional spaces, modernizing and emphasizing their
original features. For example, JSC incorporates a contemporary visual component into the Blackstone’s elegant lobby using the stunning,
thoughtful photographs of Chicago artist, Accra Shepp. Shepp’s powerful urban triptych brings a modern visual language into a traditional
space.
Similarly, JSC enhances the Blackstone lobby by featuring a cutting-edge video- generated computer art piece by new media artist, Lincoln
Schatz. Using a video camera mounted on top of the hotel, Schatz’ work presents exquisitely composed and perpetually changing views of
Chicago’s lakefront. These images are collaged using Schatz’s custom software and displayed on plasma television screens installed behind
the lobby reception desk. The overlapping film captures images Chicago’s lakefront and parks and the footage is saved, reassembled, and
replayed, creating an endless visual memory.
Also in the Blackstone lobby, JSC highlighted the large, historic fireplace and mantle by installing the exquisite book excavations or Brian
Dettmer. Three intricately carved Chicago Architecture books are affixed to the mantle, bringing another modern element to the grand
Blackstone lobby.
Meeting Rooms
The Blackstone was designed with the corporate sector in mind and therefore features numerous multipurpose meeting rooms on its many
levels. Joel Straus Consulting specially designed each meeting room using eclectic works which enhance the conference environment. The
meeting room art program includes a humorous “pill cure” series by Dana Wyse, an exquisite Illinois photograph series by Mark DeBer-
nardi, the remarkably vivid flower series by Marco Ambrosi, scientific photographic imagery by Audrius Plioplys, and a stunning Liquid
Landscape series by Liz Nielsen. Each meeting room has a unique feel and offers a stimulating work environment.

4. The Art Hall
Historically, The Blackstone Hotel exhibited local artists in its ornate fifth floor Art Hall. The new Blackstone Renaissance Hotel revives this
tradition of rotating art exhibitions by showing, biannually, a series of artworks by students and alumni from Chicago’s Columbia College.
For this innovative, community-based endeavor, the Blackstone commissioned Joel Straus Consulting to select a local arts school and to cu-
rate the first exhibition. The Blackstone, literally surrounded by Columbia College’s urban campus, seeks to engage Chicago’s rich arts
community within its walls, embellishing its traditional architecture with contemporary student artwork.
Guestrooms
The Blackstone guestrooms feature works by visual satirist Michael Hernandez de Luna. JSC commissioned De
Luna to create a series of large-scale, perforated stamp-sheet pieces which cleverly reference the Blackstone
Hotel’s history as the "Hotel of Presidents." De Luna’s work ironically references the rich political history of the
Blackstone Hotel and wryly highlights the venue’s cultural contribution to Chicago.
The guest rooms vary from one another offering diverse De Luna images and combinations. The club guest-
rooms, for example, feature their own Hernandez de Luna program. Each guestroom also offers innovative im-
ages created by Chicago based artists. These include complex topiary pieces by David Lefkowitz, vivid abstract
images by Richard Hull and comical figurative works by Mark Crisanti.
Guest Suites
The hotel’s suites are known for hosting numerous U.S. Presidents including Woodrow Wilson, Theodore
and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy, These culturally significant rooms feature an exciting and
diverse combination of Hernandez de Luna stamp-sheet works. One suite in particular, the famous
"Smoke-Filled Room," where Warren G. Harding was chosen as the compromise Republican nominee for
President in 1920, features a specific politically satirical Hernandez de Luna series.

5. Historic Lobby

6. Lincoln Schatz received his BA from Bennington College
in 1986 and is the recipient of a CORE fellowship to the
Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts in
Houston.
Through his custom software, Schatz selectively records and dis-
plays video images culled from specific environments to create
generative portraits. Most recently, Schatz has created video
works that collect, store and display more than eight years of
video memory. From its start date, each piece collects video from
its environment daily, amassing thin slices of video/time. On-
screen those slices overlap and juxtapose with images from cur-
rent time.
For the Blackstone Schatz presents constantly changing compositions of Chicago’s lakefront. These images collage on plasma television
screens installed behind the lobby reception desk. The overlapping video captures images of Chicago’s lakefront and parks and the foot-
age is saved, reassembled, and manipulated, creating an endless visual memory.
Location: Historic Lobby
Lincoln Schatz
Video Installation, Two 50” Plasma Television Screens
Installation View

7. For the Blackstone Shepp created a photographic triptych of Chicago’s Michigan Avenue Bridge. Mounted above the elevators in the ho-
tel’s historic lobby, these stunning pieces introduce a strong urban language into a traditional space.
Accra Shepp received his BA in Art History
and Studio art from Princeton University and
Location: Historic Lobby
Accra Shepp
In 1997, he had a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art en-
titled, "Tunnel Visions", and in 1999, he completed a Fulbright Fellowship in
Indonesia. His work has been exhibited throughout the world and his photo-
graphs are included in the collections of renowned museums such as The Mu-
seum of Modern Art in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston,
Texas.
Chicago River at Michigan Avenue, Panel 1 and Panel 3: 56.25 x 45,” Panel 2: 56.25” x 90”, 56.25” x 45”
Installation View

8. Brian Dettmer, born in 1974, was raised just outside Chicago, Illinois. He earned his BA from Columbia College in 1997.
A significant and notable body of Dettmer's work is created by excavating books without inserting or moving any of the books' contents.
Dettmer seals, then slices and carves into older textbooks, dictionaries, encyclopedias, medical guides, science books, engineering
books, history books, comic books, and others, exposing select images and text revealing new or alternative interpretations of the books.
For the Blackstone Dettmer was commissioned to excavate three coffee table scaled books on Chicago Architecture that will be mounted
on the mantle of the fireplace in the historic reception area.
Location: Historic Lobby
Brian Dettmer
Chicago Architecture Club, 12” x 10” x 1.5”
Frank Lloyd Wright, 12” x 9” x 2”
Chicago Architecture and Design,
12.5” x 9” x 1.5”

9. Public Space

10. Artist and art critic Harold Haydon (1909-1994) lived and worked in Chicago.
Haydon developed a remarkably original and unusual theory of painting based on optics and visual perception. The lifelong Chicagoan’s
“binocular paintings,” as Haydon referred to them, are related to the Cubist notion of multiple-point perspective. They are relatively real-
istic but their disorienting and disquieting effects confuse one’s vision through their stylistic juxtaposition of images. His street scenes
and images of city life are painted in a manner unlike anything else in modern American painting.
The Blackstone will display three images of Haydon’s paintings in the Club Level lobby.
Location: Club Level
Harold Haydon
Traffic, 34” x 39”
Variety, 38” x 32”
Corner of 57th and Harper, 33” x 39”

11. Dimitre was born in 1965 and is an established commercial and fine art photographer based in Chicago.
Dimtre works both as a fine arts and a commercial photographer and his images are unsentimental renderings of the urban environment.
Though exquisitely beautiful, his photographs are not facile post card images rather they portray a brawny almost acidic portrait of Chi-
cago.
The Blackstone will display Dimitre’s images on the Club level. They will be the first images seen as one descends the main staircase.
Location: Club Level
Dimitre
Skyline 9, 23” x 30.5” Skyline 37, 23” x 30.5”

12. Location: Third Floor Pre-function Area
Jackie Kazarian
Jackie Kazarian was born in 1959. She earned her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1989. She currently lives and
works in Chicago.
Kazarian is a painter, video and installation artist whose intense colors and complex surfaces explore utopian impulses in the face of
emotional and physical upheaval. Her visually challenging and kinetic landscapes integrate different languages of painting and drawing
with screen-printing, stamping, flocking and collage. In her paintings on paper, she collages vintage wall paper in rich and saturated
landscapes.
Impasse 1, 23 “x 29” Impasse 2, 23 “x 29”

13. Location: Third Floor Pre-function Area
Ann Worthing
Ann Worthing was born in 1958 and raised in Wharton, Texas. She currently lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.
Worthing’s paintings display a huge range of hue within a limited palette. She paints with subtlety and finesse depicting very simple
scenes where common objects are transformed by paint and composition. Her painting “Backyard” comes from a series she produced
from looking out her window where she parsed nature from the urban environment.
The Blackstone will display Ann Worthing’s painting in the restored third floor lobby.
Backyard: Chicago, 24 “x 48”

14. Robert Donley was born in 1934 and received BFA and MFA degrees from the School of the Art Institute in the 1940’s. He has been
a professor of art at DePaul University in Chicago since 1967.
Donley’s recent work investigates ideas of re-imagining and dissecting urban space. With a style, both sophisticated and crude, Don-
ley lays down a fantastic cityscape with extraordinary detail. Though usually taking an aerial perspective, his paintings exhibit a fas-
cination with minute street-level phenomena and relationships.
The Blackstone will display Donley’s pieces in the restored fourth floor lobby.
Location: Fourth Floor Prefunction Area
Robert Donley
Edge of Town, 30 “x 38”

15. Location: Fourth Floor Pre-function Area
Robert Donley
The Argonauts, 30 “x 38” Harbor, 30 “x 38”

16. Meeting Rooms

17. Dana Wyse was born in Canada in 1965 and now lives and works in Paris.
Dana Wyse produces pill cures are designed to solve our human problems and help us achieve our most secret aspirations. They mimic
convenience store products, designed to give us energy, restore our vitamin levels and help with altitude. Wyse’s sardonic pill packets
poke fun at the notion that our most basic human problems can be cured with a pill.
With a note of irony and humor, the Blackstone will display 40 of Dana Wyse’s pill cures in the Club Level meeting rooms.
Pill Cures, Series of 10, 18” x 32”
Location: Club Level Meeting Rooms
Dana Wyse

18. Location: Club Level Barbershop Meeting Room and Guestroom Suites
Karen Savage
Karen Savage was born in 1948. She currently lives in Chicago, Illinois.
Delicate vintage gloves worn to a debutante ball and wedding bouquets are the subjects of Savage’s brilliant photograms -- stark images
of objects placed over photographic paper and exposed to light. Seemingly like x-rays, they are opaque, transparent and translucent. Sav-
ages series of women’s gloves is representative of past formalities and speak to the societal standards and established gender roles of the
day. Savages series of flower bouquets represent the spectacle of the wedding as an event of the past.
The Blackstone will display Savage’s glove photograms in the historic and exquisitely restored Barber Shop. Her bouquets will be dis-
played in triptych- a series of three images. They will grace the two historic suites and one of the 23rd
floor guest suites.
Gloves Series, 24 “x 21” Each
Flower Triptychs, 28 “x 59”

19. Location: Third Floor Meeting Room
Mark DeBernardi
Mark DeBernardi was born in 1960. He currently lives and works in Evanston, Illinois.
In his series “From Here to Cairo (IL),” DeBernardi has chronicled important but overlooked historic locations in Illinois. The photo-
graphs have a vintage, sepia appearance and create a sense of intrigue. For example, what is important about a cabin in the woods?
One soon discovers that this log cabin is an image of the reproduction of the two-room home that was the last Lincoln shared with
his father and stepmother.
The Blackstone will display a group of these stunning photographs in the third floor meeting room.
The Chatsworth Wreck, 21” x 25” Lincoln’s Log Cabin, 21” x 25”

20. Location: Fourth Floor Meeting Room
Marco Ambrosi
Marco Ambrosi was born in 1959. He currently lives and works in Verona, Italy.
Marco Ambrosi is self-taught and is both a commercial and fine arts photographer. In his Bios series, Ambrosi intentionally hypes the ar-
tificiality of floral compositions rather than creating sentimental flower arrangements. By digital enhancing the images, he distorts colors
and forms to create powerfully suggestive images.
The Blackstone will display Ambrosi’s photographs in the fourth floor meeting room.
Bios, 23” x 37” Bios, 23” x 37”

21. Location: Fifth Floor Meeting Room
Audrius Plioplys
Audrius Plioplys was born in 1951. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1971 and earned his MD degree from the Pritzker
School of Medicine University of Chicago in 1975. Among other positions, he is currently a member of the Neurology Staff at Mercy Hos-
pital in Chicago.
A neurological scientist first and artist second, Plioplys creates archival digital prints photographically overlaid by the drawings of Cajal,
an early neurological researcher whose images match current brain scans almost perfectly. The photographs behind the drawings (actually
the negatives of the drawings) are of places Plioplys has gone that provoked thought. Therefore, he is aligning his thoughts with what the
thought might look like in the brain. His series is called “Thoughts on Cajal.”
Solstice, 13” x 36” Neural Symphony, 13” x 36”

22. Location: Twenty-Third Floor Meeting and Board Rooms
Liz Nielsen
Liz Nielsen was born in 1975. She earned her BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in 2002 and her M.F.A. from the Uni-
versity of Illinois at Chicago in 2004. She currently lives and works in Chicago.
Liz Nielsen’s photographs create atmospheres that appear to be either extraterrestrial or submarine. She photographs multi-colored ink
droplets floating in bottles of water under high magnification to produce mini-environments and fantastical landscapes.
The Blackstone will display a series of Nielsen’s images in the twenty-third floor boardrooms.
Liquid Landscapes, 13” x 36”

23. King and Queen Guest Rooms

24. Location: Guestroom Headboard
David Lefkowitz
David Lefkowitz was born in 1962 and currently lives
and works in St. Paul, Minnesota. He earned his BA from
Carlton College in 1985 and his MFA from the University
of Illinois, Chicago, in 1990. He currently works as the
Assistant Professor of Art at Carlton College.
Lefkowitz seeks inspiration from art history, travel and
the idiosyncrasies of daily life. He is not limited to tradi-
tional art materials in the work he creates, often recycling
cardboard, wood scraps and even Styrofoam. Mostly con-
sidered a painter, he frequently crosses over into sculp-
ture either in relief or, occasionally, freestanding objects
that often become part of an installation. His sense of hu-
mor and regard for the environment are almost always
present in his multi-dimensional repertoire.
Financial District, 33” x 33”

25. Location: Guestroom Headboard
David Lefkowitz
Demolition, 27” x 33.5”Restaurant, 27” x 33.5”

26. Location: Guestroom Accent Walls
Michael Hernandez de Luna
Visual satirist Michael Hernandez de Luna was born
in Chicago, in 1957. He earned his BFA from the
School of the Art Institute in 1983 and then attended
Columbia College between 1976 and 1978.
Primarily known for creating and producing
“counterfeit” postage stamps, for the Blackstone Ho-
tel, Hernandez de Luna created a unique series of
large-scale, perforated stamp-sheet pieces which
cleverly reference the Blackstone Hotel’s legacy as
the "Hotel of Presidents." Hernandez de Luna’s
pieces make ironic references to the hotel’s rich po-
litical history, appropriating historic photographs
and iconic images.
The Smoke Filled Room, 30” x 30”

27. Location: Guestroom Accent Walls
Michael Hernandez de Luna
William Hale Thomson, 30” x 30”The Checker Cab, 30” x 30”

28. Location: Guestroom Accent Walls
Michael Hernandez de Luna
Ike and Kick, 30” x 30”JFK, 30” x 30”

29. Location: Guestroom Accent Walls
Michael Hernandez de Luna
The Smoke Filled Room, 33” x 33” The Smoke Filled Room, 33” x 33”

30. Location: Guestroom Accent Walls
Michael Hernandez de Luna
The Maharishi, 30” x 30”

31. Location: Bathrooms
Mark Crisanti
Local artist Mark Crisanti was born in 1964. He stud-
ied at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, Illi-
nois.
Crisanti’s collage paintings address evolution and exis-
tence. In each piece, Crisanti attaches a bird head to a
human body blurring the viewer’s perceptions of man
and animal. The blank stare of each bird, amidst daily
vices and activities confronts viewers with the irony of
their own human actions. Crisanti uses various ephem-
era as backgrounds-dictionary pages, S & H green
stamps, game boards, and manuals to enrich his con-
frontations.
Illusion and Camouflage, 20” x 20”

32. Location: Concierge Bathrooms
Richard Hull
Richard Hull was born in 1955 and raised in
Oklahoma City. In 1978, after graduating from
the Kansas City Art Institute, Hull moved to Chi-
cago for his graduate work at the School of the
Art Institute of Chicago, where he currently
teaches.
Hull's current work decomposes and recomposes
figurative and abstract elements. His figures are
stripped of any figural function and he creates
circular, organic forms with odd futuristic exten-
sions adding interior lines that carry a sensation
of carved architectural past. Hull works with a
variety of materials including oil, wax and char-
coal, as well as ordinary materials such as Cray-
Last, 14.5” x 17.5”

33. Corridors and Elevator Lobbies

34. Location: Elevator Lobby
William Von Hartz
Helipad, 16” x 24” Illuminated, 16” x 24”

35. Location: Elevator Lobby
William Von Hartz
Helipad II, 16” x 24” Vent Pipe, 16” x 24”

36. Location: Corridor
Tom Denlinger
Tom Denlinger was born in 1953. He received his MFA
from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL,
in 1982. He has had many solo exhibitions and his work has
been featured in numerous group shows world-wide.
Denlinger’s new photography series, “Intersections,” pre-
sents a unique view of Chicago. Each photograph, taken
from a busy downtown intersection, imparts a view up-
wards, skillfully illuminating Chicago’s stellar architectural
landscape. The black and white building outlines which
prod the borders of each composition, create abstract shapes
and unique designs in the sky-scape and encourage viewers
to contemplate Chicago from a different perspective.
Intersections, 20” x 20” each

37. Location: Corridors
Tom Denlinger
Intersections, 20” x 20” each Intersections, 20” x 20” each

38. Location: Corridors
Tom Denlinger
Intersections, 20” x 20” eachIntersections, 20” x 20” each

39. Historic Art Hall
Historically, The Blackstone Hotel exhibited lo-
cal artists in its ornate fifth floor Art Hall. The
new Blackstone Renaissance Hotel revives this
tradition of rotating art exhibitions by showing,
biannually, a series of artworks by students and
alumni from Chicago’s Columbia College.
For this innovative, community-based en-
deavor, the Blackstone commissioned Joel
Straus Consulting to select a local arts school
and to curate the first exhibition. The Black-
stone, literally surrounded by Columbia Col-
lege’s urban campus, seeks to engage Chicago’s
rich arts community within its walls, embellish-
ing its traditional architecture with contempo-
rary student artwork.

40. Joel Straus Consulting
Founded in 1996, Joel Straus Consulting designs art programs and creates high impact, international art collections for clients in both
public and private arenas. JSC is a collaborative association of art consultants, architects and urban planners, with expertise in designing
art master plans and art programs that focus on the interplay and integration of art in urban environments. Joel Straus acts as an inde-
pendent consultant to numerous private collectors as well as foundations and major municipal projects throughout the country. His di-
verse range of clients include: Sage Hospitality, the Washington, D.C. Convention Center, the McCormick Convention Center, the City
of Palm Beach Gardens, and the Midland Foundation’s Dow Centennial Garden Committee.
Joel Straus earned his Bachelor of Arts degree and graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Wake Forest University in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1984. Straus began his career at Chicago’s Richard Gray Gallery. Over 11 years he worked in various
capacities, eventually becoming the gallery’s Assistant Director.
Joel Straus Consulting’s programs receive enthusiastic response from critics and public alike. Two recent projects, the D.C. Convention
Center Art Collection and the Palm Beach Gardens exterior project, were recognized as “The most successful, innovative, and exciting
public art projects of the year” by Americans for the Arts in the 2004 Year in Review.

41. Category Art works Artists Chicago/IL %
Guest Rooms 1282 4 4 100%
Guest Corridors 184 2 2 100%
Public/Meeting Rooms 138 15 11 73%
Totals 1604 21 17 81%
Statistics

42. Credits:
All Images Copyright of each Artist.
Courtesy of David Lefkowitz, Aron Packer of Packer Schopf Gallery, Richard Hull, Michael Hernandez de
Luna, Mark Crisanti, Accra Shepp, Lincoln Schatz, Brian Dettmer, Karen Savage, Flatfile Galleries, Dimitre,
Mark DeBernardi, Liz Nielsen, Marco Ambrosi, Audrius Plioiplys, Torch Gallery, Dana Wyse, Corbett vs.
Dempsey Gallery, Robert Donely, The Harold Haydon Estate, Joel Straus Consulting and The Blackstone
Renaissance Hotel.
Architectural Drawings Copyright Getty’s Group.