Downtown Grand announces artists, artwork for new Gallery Tower

The “Fern Head” is coming to a hotel room near you.

It’s a striking visual, the lower half of a woman’s face teeming with the titular plant amid a landscape of sailboats and staircases, created by Peru-born multimedia artist Camila Magrane.

Check into the new Gallery Tower at the Downtown Grand and you just might be able to see the piece in up-close-and-personal fashion: It’s among the works of art featured in certain rooms, the piece in question an extension of Magrane’s “Virtual Mutations” series utilizing augmented reality.

Magrane created an exclusive app for the Downtown Grand titled “Transmigrations,” which will enable guests to view and interact with the augmented reality features of the artwork.

Magrane will be joined by Austin, Texas-based muralist Josef Kristofoletti in creating new works of art for the property, in addition to other artists to be announced.

Kristofoletti will paint a large mural on the exterior of a Stewart Avenue-facing mechanical building, adjacent to the Gallery Tower.

A recent artist-in-residence at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, Kristofoletti often paints murals inspired by ideas about nature, technology, space and architecture. His works tend to be brightly colored and kaleidoscopic in nature, like his commissioned mural “Tau Ceti,” which looms as Austin’s tallest public artwork.

The seven-story Gallery Tower will add 495 new rooms to the property, bringing its total inventory to 1,124 rooms. The addition will offer a range of room options, including 67 studio units, 20 one-bedroom suites and three 1,500-square-foot Presidential Suites.

The Downtown Grand is now taking room reservations for Gallery Tower stays starting Sept. 22.