Artiq unveils a sensory art journey at Six Senses London

Artiq has curated and commissioned a significant, building-wide art collection for Six Senses London, marking the next chapter in the evolution of The Whiteley – London’s first great department store and one of Bayswater’s most recognisable Grade II listed landmarks.

Spanning lobby, restaurant, bar, members’ spaces, meeting rooms and spa, the predominantly commission-led collection has been conceived as an integrated cultural programme rather than a decorative addition. Responding directly to the architecture, interior materiality and historic identity of The Whiteley, the works form a cohesive narrative shaped by tactility, tone and atmosphere.

Image credit: Six Senses London

Once described as an “emporium of the senses”, Whiteley’s original ambition provides the conceptual foundation. Artiq’s curatorial approach reinterprets this legacy through contemporary practice, bringing together a roster of largely London-based artists whose work explores texture, process and material intelligence. The result is a layered and immersive collection that unfolds gradually throughout the building – reinforcing Six Senses’ commitment to wellbeing, sustainability and sensory awareness.

Isabelle Guyer, Senior Curator of Artiq, commented: “Each work contributes to a wider story of renewal. Subtle references to landscape, geology, textile and gesture echo the hotel’s interior palette and architectural rhythm, creating moments of pause and depth within spaces designed for gathering, restoration and reflection.”

Patrick McCrae, CEO of Artiq, added: “The Whiteley carries extraordinary cultural memory. Our ambition was to honour that history while ensuring the collection feels entirely of its moment. By commissioning artists whose practices centre material, sustainability and process, we’ve created a body of work that supports the hotel’s philosophy of considered living – one that reveals itself over time and strengthens the guest experience in lasting ways.”

The collection has been curated around the framework of three pillars.

Image credit: Six Senses London

Emporium of the senses

Inside the hotel, every space, designed by interior design firm AvroKO, is conceived to support spiritual balance and physical wellbeing. The art collection extends this ethos. Through layered surfaces, considered juxtapositions and a palette drawn from the natural world, the works invite quiet introspection and heightened sensory awareness.

Balance guides the curatorial approach: harmonious yet gently dynamic compositions bring subtle energy to lobbies, bars, guestrooms and spa areas. The outside is drawn inward through references to geology, landscape and organic form, echoing the hotel’s material language of timber, stone, ceramic and woven textiles.

Luca Ferraro, Senior Design Manager at AvroKO, commented: “Honouring Whiteley’s historic emporium, our selection acts as a visual bridge across time. Championing British artists, we mixed traditional paintings with tactile pieces, grounding this landmark in a modern experience that embodies Six Senses’ values.”

Sustaining wellness

Rooted in connection to the local environment, the collection foregrounds artists whose practices embrace sustainable production methods and mindful material sourcing. In dialogue with Six Senses’ environmental advocacy, the curation privileges reverence, restraint and renewal.

Foraged pigments, recycled materials, hand-processes and low-impact methodologies reflect a shared awareness of impact. The works evoke awe for the natural world while nurturing both inner calm and collective responsibility.

Modern renaissance

The collection engages directly with Whiteley’s past, recognising the building as a site of ambition, spectacle and civic confidence. That legacy is carried forward through contemporary practices that prioritise material, process and restraint.

Historic detail and architectural rhythm inform the works without being overtly quoted. References surface in structure, palette and texture rather than ornament. What emerges is a confident moment of renewal – a dialogue between eras that feels deliberate, intelligent and entirely current.

Image credit: Six Senses London

The lobby: texture, gesture, grounding

The predominantly commission-led body of work in the lobby establishes the collection’s holistic intent. Unifying textiles, expressive mark-making and material-led processes, the works anchor the arrival experience with warmth and composure.

Working through the art historical trope of landscape, Sam Llewellyn-Janes explores natural history and deep time. Drawing on geology, astronomy and pre-historic and contemporary flora and fauna, his practice examines humanity’s relationship to the material world.

Central to his commissioned works are rubbing drawings. Through contact and transfer, frottage becomes a method of layering strata of carefully selected objects. The resulting compositions are materially indexed – recording texture and presence while collapsing the boundary between object and image. The works carry a palpable sense of time, echoing the building’s layered narrative.

Rooted in intuitive mark-making, Rachael Addis creates abstracted landscapes through the accumulation of layered paint and pattern. Influenced by formative years between the Lake District and Asia, and informed by Zen Buddhism and 1950s Abstract Expressionism, she approaches the painted surface as both physical and contemplative space.

For Six Senses London, she abandoned traditional brushes in favour of found and recycled materials, including discarded toy fragments. Rhythmic, meditative gestures build densely worked surfaces inspired by London’s shifting urban landscapes, rendered in elevated jewel tones that echo the hotel’s interior palette.

A conceptual textile and screen-print artist, Janine Saul interrogates the boundaries between craft and contemporary fine art. Her experimental screen-printing processes and spatial installations explore texture, movement and the tension between control and intuition.

Blending craft, conceptual thinking and spatial awareness, her works reveal the unseen emotional qualities of space – a fitting dialogue with a building defined by reinvention.

Image credit: Six Senses London

Ground floor: alchemy and elemental form

Within the Alchemist Library, bespoke works by Genevieve Levold and Ana Benavides unfold in fluid, jewel-toned compositions of deep green, burnished gold and mineral blue. Echoing the bar’s rich palette, the paintings evoke shifting landscapes and elemental movement.

Layered gestures and luminous tonal transitions create a sense of alchemy in motion – nature distilled into immersive, sensorial form.

In the lift lobby and bathrooms, modernist works by Sam Wood blend rural and urban influences through relaxed, gestural drawing and floral and architectural motifs, while works by Laura Menzies introduce further tonal dialogue and spatial softness.

First floor: through the window

Under the central skylight of the members’ floor, Through the Window brings together London-based artists exploring memory, interiority and emotional light. Inspired by architectural transparency and quiet openness, the collection encourages reflection beneath the glazed canopy.

Artists include Matt James Brown, Pam Winbolt, Marta Adalis, Paula Bosco, Lisa Price, Carla Noronha, Olha Pryymak, KP Khin, Marcus Aitken, Juliet Ferguson-Rose, Linda Khatri, Nowshin Prenon, Gala Bell, Fiona White and Valerie Kuzina – forming a contemplative constellation that softens and humanises the club environment.

In the meeting rooms, works by Julita Elbe and Charlotte Cuny introduce clarity, compositional restraint and textural nuance.

Image credit: Six Senses London

The spa: materials of the earth

In the Whiteley x Six Senses Spa, art and wellness converge. Commissioned works offer moments of visual stillness and subtle delight, inspired by the delicate rhythm of nature.

Lisa-Marie’s meticulous practice centres on handmade watercolours created from foraged earth minerals. Rejecting commercially available paints, she sources pigments from varied environments, weaving a direct bond between material and landscape.
Immersing herself in both urban and rural terrains, she translates the sights, sounds and scents of place into a restrained, mineral-rich visual language. Each stroke carries the energy of the land from which it derives – aligning seamlessly with Six Senses’ philosophy of ecological awareness and embodied wellbeing.

A new chapter for The Whiteley

Throughout Six Senses London, the art collection is embedded within the fabric of the building. It moves with the architecture, aligns with the interior materiality and reinforces the hotel’s emphasis on sensory awareness and wellbeing.

The works build presence gradually. Texture, tone and process create depth across spaces designed for gathering, restoration and retreat — shaping an experience that feels cohesive, grounded and distinctly of its setting.

In a neighbourhood long overlooked and now in renewal, this collection signals a more nuanced form of luxury – one grounded in tactility, sustainability and cultural depth.

Artiq is one of our Recommended Suppliers and regularly features in our Supplier News section of the website. If you are interested in becoming one of our Recommended Suppliers, please email Katy Phillips.

Main image credit: Six Senses London