Oscar Wang and Patina Tianjin have announced a new collaboration centred on a permanent artwork that the Shanghai-based artist will create exclusively for the hotel.
The project will begin with Wang’s study of the site and its history, then move into the design and production of the artwork. From there, the collaboration will extend into cultural programming and a limited-edition collection.
For Wang, this approach is familiar. His work moves across art, design, architecture, and lifestyle, with the surrounding space often shaping it from the outset. Before deciding on materials, scale, or form, he studies how a building has changed over time, how its spaces are used, and how people move through them.
That process became particularly significant at Patina Tianjin when research into the site uncovered an unexpected family connection.
A Family Connection to the Site
While researching the location’s history, the Patina Tianjin team found records linking Wang’s family to the city. His maternal great-grandfather, Mr Zhang Ziqi, had worked at the former No. 4 Telephone Exchange, located beside the hotel’s East Courtyard.
Wang later visited the former telephone exchange himself. During the visit, he was shown archival material relating to the building, including a reproduction bearing Zhang Ziqi’s handwritten signature.
The discovery came after the collaboration was already underway. For Wang, however, it offered a new way of looking at a site he had already begun studying.
“It was only after the collaboration began that I discovered this connection between my family and the former No. 4 Telephone Exchange beside the hotel,” Wang said. “It came as a complete surprise. It did not change why we began the collaboration, but it changed the way I understood the site when I returned to it.”
He does not intend for the family story to become the central subject of the artwork. Instead, Wang plans to retain it as a quieter element within the piece, alongside the building’s broader history and its relationship to contemporary Tianjin.
Art Shaped by Patina Tianjin
The permanent artwork will be positioned at an important point within the hotel’s public spaces. Wang is developing the piece through archival research, on-site observations, and experiments with materials.
The setting is itself part of the project. Patina Tianjin occupies 17 restored heritage buildings in a historic cultural district. Its architecture includes classical structures and Italianate window frames, combined with contemporary interiors and a series of garden courtyards.
Wang sees the collaboration as an opportunity to work with those existing qualities rather than treating the artwork as an object set apart from them.
“I have always believed that a site is not the backdrop to an artwork, but an integral part of how the work comes into being,” Wang said. “Once you truly enter a space, its circulation, architectural scale, materials, light, and existing traces all reshape your initial understanding.”
He added that the project reflects Patina’s interest in connecting local culture with contemporary experiences, allowing the artwork to extend beyond the gallery-like presentation of a single object.
The collaboration will also include a limited-edition collection developed from the same creative direction. Further details about the artwork, collection, and installation are expected to be announced as the project progresses.
For now, the permanent commission brings together Wang’s site-led practice with the layered history of Patina Tianjin, including a personal connection that emerged only after the artist began investigating the place where his work will eventually take shape.
