This was published 1 year ago
Henry Jones Art Hotel artist-in-residence program: The Hobart hotel that takes art to heart
By Jim Darby
Artist Jeewan Suwel.Credit: Georgia Claxton
When are you a local? When do you finally belong to the place you inhabit? It's probably a two-way street: part of it depends on the views and acceptance of those who came before and part of it depends on your own state of mind.
Artist Jeewan Suwel calls Hobart home but confesses on one day he might think "I belong to this place" and another he might think "oh, I'm not from here".
The landscape is everything in his art. Look up from Hobart's city and suburbs and the average eye will see kunanyi/Mount Wellington looming above, an old mountain weathered and worn by the years. But when he sees it, and regards its dominance over the city, he says it reminds him of Annapurna, the mountain he grew up with in Nepal.
At 8091 metres Annapurna ranks as the world's 10th-highest peak, whereas at a modest 1271 metres, kunanyi is a long way down the list. But for Suwal, it's all relative. "In Kathmandu we had the mountains all around and in Hobart we have the mountains all around.
"But when you see Mount Wellington from Kingston, it's a different figure from when you see it from the city or from Glenorchy. So we can call it one thing, but it is always changing, so you draw it from the perspective you have."
Suwel paints abstract landscapes, often with hints enough to show the site, like the Wrest Point tower in Sandy Bay, or the colourful cottages of Hobart's New Town.
"Every moment the light is changing," he says, and so is the experience of being in a landscape. "The lifestyle, the Tassie lifestyle is constant, but the weather is always changing, the temperature, the rain, the changing sky. Sometimes I forget I'm in Tasmania."
He grew up in Nepal on a modest farm, studied art in India, encouraged by a father who saw his son's artistic talent, and made his way to Australia, eventually settling in Hobart with his young family.
Suwel has twice been artist in residence at Hobart's waterfront Henry Jones Art Hotel and also has his work exhibited at the hotel. They take the concept seriously, setting the artist up in the foyer where they can work away, interacting with guests and visitors.
As Henry Jones' art curator Tina Zucco says, many hotels display art "and why wouldn't they? there's so much wall space", but as far as she knows, they're the only hotel that actually employs an art curator.
As well as effectively being a working gallery - the lobby, hallways and walls are adorned with art from a rotating selection of more than 400 works at any one time - the hotel is home to various arts programs and gives a platform to local artists.
That includes the Henry Jones Art Prize and finalists' exhibition, the Artist in Residence program, rotating exhibitions year-round and tours of the hotel's permanent collection. Among it are works from the famed John Glover collection in the hotel's Landscape Restaurant & Grill.
The $20,000 Henry Jones Art prize for emerging artists was established in 2018; this year, more than 100 pieces have been submitted, with entries judged by an independent panel who narrow that down to 40 to 60 works for the finalists' exhibition, and select the winner. As well as the prize money, the winner also has the opportunity to have a solo exhibition at the hotel.
In its role as a working gallery, the hotel becomes a home for artists like Jeewan Suwel, who can "show my journey and how I arrived".
THE DETAILS
ART
The winner of the 2022 Henry Jones Art Prize was announced on November 23 with the finalists' exhibition open to the public until December 4; entry is free. Tours are available of the hotel's art collection. Free for guests, $20 for visitors.
STAY
Rooms from $320 a night. 25 Hunter Street, Hobart, Tasmania. Phone (03) 6210 7700, see thehenryjones.com.au
Jim Darby was a guest of the Henry Jones Art Hotel.
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