ArtisDomus

Cultural strategy

ArtisDomus · Case studies

Nine works chosen from roughly one hundred, two of them made for the room.

AKI is a restaurant in a Grade II listed former banking hall at One Cavendish Square in London. ArtisDomus directed and co-curated its collection. The engagement was renewed the following year for a brand activation.

01/04

The engagement

Art direction and co-curation for a restaurant in a former banking hall.

Asset
AKI, One Cavendish Square, London: a restaurant in a Grade II listed former banking hall.
Scope
Art direction and co-curation of the collection, with site-specific commissions.
Selection
Nine works from roughly one hundred candidates.
Outcome
Renewed the following year for a brand activation.
Press
Credited by House of Coco, 17 October 2025.
A panelled green dining room: a densely textured panel lit from above between two ribbed wall lights, a buttoned banquette below and a branched candelabrum at the right edge.
Pl. 01 The room, with Nabil Nahas’s Untitled, 2023, on the wall. Photograph Rian Davidson.
02/04

The commissions

Two works in the collection were made for AKI.

Bouke de Vries’s The White Lady with Dragonfly, 2025, was made for the restaurant. Albano Hernández’s P25.12, 2025, is made from materials collected in the restaurant itself.

A work bought for a wall can move to another wall. A work made for a room belongs to that room. A programme can only commission this way while the interiors are still being designed.

The porcelain Guan Yin in her clear case seen closer, the gold mosaic of the niche curving behind her and the stepped wooden plinth below.
Pl. 02 Bouke de Vries. The White Lady with Dragonfly, 2025. Made for AKI, in its gold mosaic niche. Photograph Rian Davidson.
A white canvas worked in close rows of ribbed impasto, lit from above in a pale panelled frame on the wall, a marble-topped console below.
Pl. 03 Albano Hernández. P25.12, 2025. Made from materials collected in the restaurant. Photograph Rian Davidson.
The white impasto close up: arched ribbed strips set in rows, flecked with green, pink and blue fragments.
Pl. 04 Detail. The fragments it was made from show in the ribbed white surface. Photograph Rian Davidson.
03/04

The works

Nabil Nahas made the anchor work of the collection.

The collection also includes Ryan Gander’s A Machine To Send You To Some Other New Place and Jaime Poblete’s Warm Bronze with Radiant Core. The restaurant shows the collection on its own website: AKI, art collection. Daniel Knorr, Albano Hernández and Ryan Gander each have an artist page.

A panel of dense blue, yellow and white rosettes on a green velvet wall between two ribbed wall lights, above a buttoned banquette and a marble floor.
Pl. 05 Nabil Nahas. Untitled, 2023, acrylic and pumice. The anchor work of the collection. Photograph Rian Davidson.
The rosette panel seen wider, one ribbed wall light at its left and the green wall running past the frame.
Pl. 06 The same work, wider. Photograph Rian Davidson.
The rosette panel close up: hundreds of small raised flowers in blue, turquoise, yellow and white over a dark ground.
Pl. 07 Detail. Photograph Rian Davidson.
A folded sheet of metal mounted on a dark green wall, its creases catching gold and silver light, flanked by two tall ribbed wall lights.
Pl. 08 Daniel Knorr. Gold Flag CS 039, 2022, from the Golden Pillows series. Photograph Rian Davidson.
The same folded metal sheet seen from lower down, the panelled cornice above it and a buttoned banquette running beneath.
Pl. 09 The same work in its bay. Photograph Rian Davidson.
The folded metal sheet close up, its surface creased into soft ridges that hold gold at the folds and silver in the flats.
Pl. 10 Detail. Photograph Rian Davidson.
The tiled panel of cream and emerald green hung from its bronze rod on the green velvet wall, a ribbed wall light at its right.
Pl. 11 Kapwani Kiwanga. Canopy, 2023. Photograph Rian Davidson.
A star of backlit triangular panels glowing orange and pink on a black wall beneath a brick vault, above a lit counter of blue and pink glass.
Pl. 12 James Clar. Origami Sunrise, 2025, a light work. Photograph Rian Davidson.
A tall framed screen glowing blue, green and gold on a pale wall at the end of a corridor, a ribbed wall light at its left.
Pl. 13 Yoshirotten. Menhir 2, 2025, a screen that turns the light of the room into colour. Photograph Rian Davidson.
Lengths of blue, white and green printed fabric and twisted ribbon suspended in a narrow stairwell, seen from below.
Pl. 14 Aziza Kadyri. Procession / Descent, 2025, fabrics from Japan and Uzbekistan. Photograph Rian Davidson.
04/04

Read next

Sources

  • House of Coco, Frieze Week 2025, 17 October 2025