The basement of the Hôtel Americano in Chelsea, NYC has been done over in dazzle-paint reminiscent of the cubist battleship paint used to confound the enemy in WWI (and dazzle makeup used to fake out face-recognition systems). The work is by German artist Tobias Rehberger, who describes it as a re-creation of Frankfurt’s Bar Oppenheimer.
The space, which opens May 10 and will remain open until July 14, dazzles the senses with its salonlike atmosphere, tight dimensions and prismatic black-and-white stripes; it’s also a functional bar where anyone can stop in for a drink during the life of the project.
By Design | A Bar That’s Also a Piece of Art
[Rocky Casale/New York Times Magazine]
(via JWZ)
(Image: downsized, cropped thumbnail of a larger photo by Matthew Cianfrani, viewable here)