A new hotel touted as the pinnacle of international luxury opens every week in China.
Multiply that phenomenon throughout Asia and the Middle East, and it becomes clear the competition to create ever-more-sumptuous accommodation is fierce.
"The appetite for art in Asia and the Middle East in the corporate world is quite high at the moment," says James Robertson, president of James Robertson Art Consultants, which started in 2002. "The owners of newly built hotels in these regions are extremely wealthy, they are well-travelled and they have sophisticated tastes. They also have great amounts of pride in their cities, and they want to provide the very best world-class hotels possible.
"These hotels seem to act as a reflection of the owner, therefore they want the best, biggest and lots of it. This has been great for the contemporary art world and for our company."
A lean team of six based in Toronto, the company has worked not only on several prestigious Canadian assignments (it decorated the lobby of the Hazelton Hotel), but also on major projects in the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and the UAE. The firm is often recommended as an art consultant by the New York and Toronto-based interior design practice of Yabu Pushelberg on sites it's working on. "Of course, we must compete against the other bidding consultants for the job," says Mr. Robertson, a graduate of the International Academy of Design.
With so much demand for his services abroad, the 39-year-old from Deep River, Ont., finds himself flying to Asia eight to 10 times in an average year.
"Although the clients request the highest quality, they are often quite shocked at the actual cost of art. It is our job to educate them on why this is and why their guests will be inspired by experiencing this art.
"It is quite a challenging process at times," he says, fresh off a business trip to Taipei, where his company is consulting on art for the W Hotel under construction.
While he often suggests Canadian artists, he also likes to meet and explore a country's local talent pool. In Taiwan, he discovered a number of emerging artists that he labels "amazing." While he says clients are usually happy with the end result – especially if they deliver on time and on budget -- the process is not often easy.
Mr. Robertson is proud of his recent work on the new St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco and the Four Seasons in Toronto.
He brought in the art that has become a key feature at the Lane Crawford luxury department stores in Hong Kong and Beijing. He also consulted on the Four Seasons in Dubai.
But he's noticed a culturally driven difference in developers' attitude toward art. "I find that owners in Asia and the Middle East tend to have great personal pride in their projects and also want to show they can provide the very best that is possible. In Canada this is not the norm and except for a few boutique hotels, I find most art collections to be sadly uninspiring and weak.
"But I have great hopes for the new Four Season Hotel being built in Toronto - this could be an amazing showcase for our Canadian talent."
Mr. Robertson loves collaborating with Japanese artists "because of their thoughtfulness to detail and their mastery of form."
Love of art is integral to the Japanese culture, so it is not a surprise that one of his favourite projects so far is the Four Seasons Hotel in Marunouchi, Tokyo. He was able to use the work of important contemporary artists: from Korean photographer Bae Bien-u, to New York stars Michal Rovner, to the Starn Twins (their installation has drawn crowds to the Metropolitan Museum roof), to Canada's Scott Eunson.
Special to the Globe and Mail
Alexandra A. Seno has written about economics and business trends in Asia since 1994. She is a regular contributor to Newsweek, the International Herald Tribune and The Wall Street Journal Asia. She lives in Hong Kong.