Hospitality Style - Summer 2012 - 36

/ 3 / Form and function meet up in this innovative banquette. The colorful FF&E continues to the Op and Pop art theming of the visuals. / 4 / Parolio celebrates the Swinging ’60s with his painting of Twiggy on a bright tangerine quilted wall. “I wanted something people could see across the dance floor,” he says. / 5 / Black walls look even more dramatic against the pops of color in the artwork and the geometric approach to lighting.

selected each work “to tell the same story as the design,” Parolio worked hard to ensure that neither the 2D art nor the videography was “dumbed down” to fit the setting. His background in advertising and event design made it easy to find images to create the vibe he was after. “I had worked with all of the artists one way or another,” he says. Parolio met Bartholot when the photographer was working in Madrid before moving back to Germany, and long before he became a strong force in the international photography scene with his beautiful and powerful colored images. Similarly, Parolio had long been an admirer of Peregrin’s celebrated fashion photography. “I contacted him and explained the idea [for the club] and he was in,” says Parolio. The New York-based Dominican artist Glenn Hilario (whose work revolves around the look of fashion illustrations) had just graduated from Parsons School of Design when Parolio was a student there.

Much of the work used in Club Musée was chosen from the artists’ existing work. “It was intuitive,” Parolio says. “I knew their work well, so I knew which pieces I wanted.” A few pieces were commissioned specially, including a Hilario collage that anchors one wall by the bar. “We sent him a brief of what we wanted, then we added the collage to his fashion illustration to give the wall near the bar the edge it needed.” While choosing the art may have been fun, figuring out how to create a gallery in a lively bar setting was more like work. The first issue was how to safeguard these works. “We often use the Spanish word antivandalico, or anti-vandalism, when we’re doing club design. People don’t act the same way after they’ve had a few drinks as they would in an art gallery setting,” he says. “People in bars like to touch, push and play with things, so we always design our clubs to anticipate that scenario,” says Parolio. “Durability is the first priority.”

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HOSPITALITYSTYLE.COM / SUMMER 2012

Hospitality Style - Summer 2012

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