Walk into a universe of art and design at Come Up To My Room (CUTMR) 2019, the Gladstone Hotel’s annual 4-day alternative design exhibition running from January 17-20. Find out what happens when art and design intersect through site-specific installations, within the walls of a historic hotel. Visitors can explore, discover and engage in conversation with the artists who will be on site throughout the festival. Different from our 37 permanent artist-designed hotel rooms (some of which will also be on display!), CUTMR presents temporary projects that occupy and alter spaces in dramatic, conceptual or experimental ways.

Space and scale are twisted and reimagined through interactive and tactile installations at Come Up To My Room 2019, curated by Jana Macalik and Jennie Suddick. As an antidote to our current uncertain times and gloomy contemporary issues, these works revel in playfulness. Here, artists and designers are the optimistic superheroes we need – providing us with creative solutions and shifts in perspectives that remove us from our everyday. Light, colour, and sound are warped to create fun (yet at times uncomfortable) spaces that bring familiar elements and
creative approaches to life in unexpected ways.

Featured Projects

Highlights of this year’s exhibition include Cole Swanson’s Terraflora, a large-scale mural painted in handmade pigments sourced from local sites including the Scarborough Bluffs. It imagines the transformative decay that the hotel would undergo in the absence of human intervention. [R]ed[U]x Lab makes Studio 206 come alive, with an installation that responds to the presence of visitors by moving and “breathing.”

New This Year

The launch of a permanent installation by Safoura Zahedi in studio 207 that will be active for one year. Her installation manipulates light and reflection to create new spatial experiences. The immersive installation will exhibit during CUTMR and then transform into an artist designed meeting room with spectacular space available for private bookings!

Love Design Shop: Sunday January 20, 11am – 6pm
The Gladstone Hotel and Sarah Cooper (Co-Founder, Shelter Bay Goods) present the Love Design Shop. Meet the designers behind some of Ontario’s most exciting brands at this one-day only shopping event. From emerging artists to established fan favourites, the Love Design Shop features a carefully curated selection of home décor, giftware, jewellery, and fashion. City/Sleep Studios, Coriander Girl, Cylinder Studio, Happy Quilts Co., Holly Stapleton, Jared Last, Kaley Flowers, Nanange, Nick Chase, Nightshift Ceramics, OXVC, Shawna Tabaznik Jewellery, Shelbey Dodds, Shelter Bay, Spare Label, Studio Eeuwes, Swaby Fashion Inc., Virginia Johnson, &
more.

CUTMR 2019 Participants
Alesha Aquino, Jasmine Cardenas, Chromatic Aberration (Becky Lauzon, Johnny Cann, Michael Rennick), Five Percent [Arshdeep Boparai, Xinxin (Tina) Cui, Xinran (Irene) Liu, Qian (Jenny) Yang, Danielle Zandueta], Sonia Gemmiti and Christy Stoeten, Ilze Godlevskis, Kristina Guison and Mehrnaz Rohbakhsh, Cleo Halfpenny, Haliburton School of Art + Design: Faculty + Alumni of the Integrated Design Diploma Program, Natalie King, Charlize Nhung, [R]ed[U]x Lab (Vincent Hui with Martina Cepic, Monika Mitić, Nan Xiao, Adrian Chîu, Arnel Español, Casey Li, Henry Mai), Anna Rose, Arshia Salesi, Shelter Bay, Cole Swanson, Alex R.M. Thompson, Georgina Lee Walker and Youri Makovski, Safoura Zahedi

CUTMR 2019 Events
Exhibition Party: Saturday January 19, 7-10pm (included with CUTMR admission, cash bar)
Love Design Party: Saturday January 19, 10pm until late (free admission, cash bar). DJs Myst
Milano and Ace Dillinger.
Friday, January 18 is student day, with individual tickets for $5 with student
ID. Student group tickets can be reserved here: CUTMRstudents2019.eventbrite.ca

Come Up To My Room

Facebook Event Page

About the Author

Bryen Dunn is a freelance journalist with a focus on travel, lifestyle, entertainment and hospitality. He has an extensive portfolio of celebrity interviews with musicians, actors and other public personalities. He enjoys discovering delicious eats, tasting spirited treats, and being mesmerized by musical beats.