Art Series Hotels is opening its eighth site at Howard Smith Wharves in Fortitude Valley. Slated to welcome guests beginning 2019 March, the hotel has begun taking reservations since November 2018.
The new attraction in the revitalised Howard Smith Wharves precinct joins favourite watering holes Mr Percival’s and Felon’s Brewing Co. It’s seven kilometres away from Art Series Hotel’s The Johnson in Spring Hill which, in keeping with the hotel’s name, celebrates the works of Australian abstract artist Michael Johnson.
For its part, the Art Series Hotel on Howard Smith Wharves will feature the works of Australian contemporary artist Vincent Fantauzzo. The site of six-storey 166-room hotel, aptly named The Fantauzzo, will be under the Story Bridge and has been designed to blend with the cliff’s neutral tones.
Mr Fantauzzo, whose parents come from Italy and Ireland, was born in England in 1977. The family moved to Broadmeadows in the Melbourne in the 1980s but the Fantauzzos would move around Australia a lot while the artist was growing up.
Undiagnosed with a learning condition as a child, Mr Fantauzzo had difficulty in primary school and was grouped in a special class with other children with learning difficulties. He fared no better in high school and was expelled for “misbehaviour.” By this time, his parents had separated and the artist tried to help his mother by apprenticing as a kitchen helper in an Italian restaurant.
Mr Fantauzzo, however, excelled in sports and competed in Martial Arts tournaments. During competitions, Mr Fantauzzo would discover his growing love for painting and would illustrate sporting pictures he had seen.
Fearing he’d fail again, the artist resolved to improve his art and did so at an impressively progressive state. He enrolled at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) for college, sans a high school diploma, and paid for his school fees with by selling his paintings.
Unfortunately, the school found out he did not complete high school after discovering a plagiarised paper he paid someone to write. Mr Fantauzzo said he had to confess his learning problems and the school facilitated tests to help him get a proper diagnosis. He found out he was dyslexic.
Mr Fantauzzo said he has learned to embrace his dyslexia more positively, especially with the help of the school’s disability liaison. In 2003, the artist received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting degree from the RMIT and completed his Masters two years later.
In 2012, RMIT made Mr Fantauzzo an Adjunct Professor. He has also travelled to Central Australia to create a portrait series featuring Aboriginal artists. Following an exhibit in Sydney in 2016, Mr Fantauzzo established himself as a well-recognized Australian painter whose works are now displayed in many homes and buildings.
Mr Fantauzzo has also done exhibits in Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles and Vietnam. He has worked with famous Austrian director Baz Luhrmann and received various awards as an artist, such as the Archibald Prize People’s Choice.
Apart from Fantauzzo’s original artworks, guests at The Fantauzzo at the Howard Smith Wharves will also get to enjoy the view of the Brisbane river from the rooftop pool terrace. The hotel also has a bar, a gym and several rooms for different functions.
