We had the pleasure of experiencing a guided art tour at Hotel New York – Art Of Marvel at Disneyland Paris. The hotel has a team of “Art Guardians” – passionate cast members that offer wonderful guided tours on around 10% of the hotel’s art. With over 300 pieces by 95 artists, this hotel has the largest collection of Marvel art in the world, so there’s a lot to see!
Art Guardian Pablo was our guide for an hour-long tour of some of the pieces – his first Art Guardian tour in English since the hotel opened six weeks ago! We start off in the lobby, where five-meter tall silver etchings line the walls. There are 10 in total: Captain America, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, Black Panther (Shuri And Okoye), Ant-Man (And The Wasp), Thor, Black Widow, Spiderman and Hulk. Each piece took Spanish artist Carlos Gomez 51 hours to complete.
The tour moved on to the “Hall Of Armor” – a trio of Iron Man suits created by the VP and Creative Director of Visual Development at Marvel Studios – Ryan Meinerding. The earliest version being the Mark 2, the gold version (Mark 21) being nicknamed “Midas”, and the red suit in the center named Mark 45B – an Art Of Marvel exclusive that accompanies Mark 45A as seen in the Iron Man movies. Ryan also created this stunning piece in the hotel’s convention center.
The backlit drawings around both entrances might seem like random artwork, but they’re both actually a cohesive comic book strip. Tony Stark needs help and calls his fellow Avengers in the first set, but Spiderman is noticeably absent. If you look at the strips on the other entrance, you’ll see that Spiderman was busy helping the citizens of New York. These panels were all created without speech bubbles or text so that guests can create their own dialogue.
Above the separate wing entrances, we can see two pieces by American artist Alex Roos – “Avengers Assemble” And “Invincible”. These hyper realistic paintings first depict the Avengers in their classic comic book style costumes, and introduce Goliath in the background – as well as Scarlet Witch and living android Vision.
Just down the hall we can find another hyper realistic painting of Captain America by Singapore artist Gary Choo. Titled “The Captain”, this limited edition piece was created in 2016 and immediately draws your eyes to the face.
To the right of “The Captain” we can find two very cool pieces of street art by New York artist Orlando Arocena. The first titled “Queens Boy” and accompanying piece “Uptown Girl” are inspired by the street art of major cities like New York, Tokyo and Paris, and feature Spiderman and Ghost Spider – the latter of which was created exclusively for the hotel.
Behind the hotels reception are giant screens showing the creation of a piece called “Marvel Saves The Big Apple” by South Korean artist Kim Jung Gi. This absolutely massive scene depicts the heroes saving the citizens of New York – but other everyday heroes such as the firefighters are also highlighted. This artwork took Kim Jung Gi only 2 days to complete and was freehanded entirely. The finished piece can be viewed in the hotel’s convention center.
Next to Doctor Strange inspired Bleecker Street Lounge, we can find a realistic portrait of the Doctor himself. Created by Italian artist Gabrielle Dell’otto, this piece titled “Doctor Strange #1” is a comic book cover variant from 2018.
Two collections of portraits line the walls further down the hallway, featuring a host of Marvel characters in a side view position – with Deadpool being the only one facing head on. These pieces were created by artist Mike Mitchell in 2014 and are displayed at the hotel courtesy of Mondo Gallery.
The hotel also features a small gallery celebrating the art of legendary Marvel artist Jack Kirby. This gallery displays various Jack Kirby comic book covers to showcase the first appearances of many of our favourite Marvel heroes.
Just past the Jack Kirby Gallery, we can find the “Art Of The Theme Parks” gallery. This temporary instalment brilliantly displays the concept art for Marvel lands and attractions from Disneyland’s Avengers Campus, the upcoming Avengers Campus at Disneyland Paris and the existing attractions and upcoming Stark Expo at Hong Kong Disneyland. When Avengers Campus opens at Disneyland Paris in 2022, this space will be replaced by artwork from that land instead.
To the right of the Jack Kirby Gallery we can find another set of portraits named “Powers Of A Girl” by artist Alice X. Zheng. These portraits beautifully showcase some of the most powerful women in Marvel.
It is hard to describe just how much artwork is present in Hotel New York – Art Of Marvel. There is something to look at everywhere you turn your head – there is different art in the rooms and each floor and corridor has a different theme. For those that really love the artwork – a few pieces are available in lithograph form in the hotel’s boutique, as well as miniature statuettes of the Iron Man suits from the lobby.
Hotel New York – Art Of Marvel has pieces for comic book fans, MCU fans and art fans to enjoy. It is absolutely worth checking out and one could easily spend a few hours just taking in all the beautiful artwork – but if a self guided tour isn’t your taste, we highly recommend the Art Guardian tour that can be booked from the reception.