Perched high above the hills of Anacapri, Jumeirah Capri Palace has long been dubbed the “White Museum” – a fitting moniker for a hotel where the walls double as canvases for a vast contemporary art collection amassed over decades.
Set against sugar-white interiors, bronze guardians, glowing neon slogans and monumental sea sculptures erupt across corridors lined with works by renowned artists, including Keith Haring, Mimmo Paladino and Arnaldo Pomodoro.
Even the pool – fringed with fragrant lemon trees and mustard-yellow parasols – doubles as a work of art, with guests floating lazily above a shimmering underwater piece by Lombardian sculptor Velasco Vitali.
From surrealist sculptures and thought-provoking contemporary installations to mythological paintings and pop-art canvases, here are some of the hotel’s standout works.
Rive dei Mari by Arnaldo Pomodoro
Few hotel corridors announce themselves quite as dramatically as the entrance to Jumeirah Capri Palace, where Rive dei Mari tears through the whitewashed space in jagged ribbons of marble dust and fibreglass. Commissioned specifically for the hotel by celebrated Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro, the monumental 40-metre installation snakes along the curved walkway towards reception in a series of shell-like forms, chalky textures and sharp geometric fractures inspired by Capri’s maritime history.
Embedded within the surface are fishing tools, shells and marine motifs that reveal themselves against the pale material, while cut-through openings towards the pool beyond pull flashes of turquoise water directly into the composition.
Elmo by Mimmo Paladino
Just outside the front door, Elmo – as the hotel puts it – serves as the “guardian of the entrance”. Created for Jumeirah Capri Palace by Italian artist Mimmo Paladino, the monumental bronze helmet is two metres wide, and is etched with arrows, maze-like markings and cryptic symbols inspired by ancient iconography.
Best known as a leading figure of the Italian Transavantgarde movement, Paladino often blends contemporary sculpture with references to mythology and archaeology. Here, the effect is slightly eerie but oddly comforting too – like a weather-worn relic hauled from the seabed and stationed outside the hotel to watch over arriving guests.
Pasos Perdidos (Cortinas de Hierro) by Yoan Capote
Part of Dwelling with Care: Fragments for a Shared World – the hotel’s latest seasonal exhibition created in collaboration with Galleria Continua – Pasos Perdidos (Cortinas de Hierro) sees tangled fishing nets suspended against the hotel’s whitewashed arches. The nets are weighed down by casts of human feet that appear trapped mid-climb. Cuban artist Yoan Capote created the work using aluminium casts taken from volunteers in Cuba before weaving them directly into the nets, drawing on recurring themes of migration, restriction and the sea as a connection and barrier.
Against Capri’s immaculate terraces and impossibly blue skies, the installation feels deliberately jarring – a haunting interruption beneath all the polished calmness of la dolce vita.
Seed Syllables by Loris Cecchini
Elsewhere in this year’s exhibition, a tangle of mirrored silver forms appears to bloom directly out of a piece of driftwood mounted against the wall. Seed Syllables forms part of a body of work by Italian artist Loris Cecchini, one that mimics biological systems and molecular structures, with clusters of tiny steel modules multiplying and spreading like cells under a microscope.
This work neatly echoes the exhibition’s wider themes of connection and fragmentation, which celebrate the beauty of juxtaposition while acknowledging the fragility of the present moment and the necessity of care.
From Light to Dark in 3 Months I (91 Days/2184 Hours) by Alicja Kwade
At first glance, Polish-German artist Alicja Kwade’s sprawling brass composition resembles an explosion of tangled metallic lines across the wall. Look closer, however, and the abstract arrangement resolves into hundreds of clock hands, each representing a single hour across a 91-day period.
The work forms part of Kwade’s wider fascination with time, perception and the shifting relationship between objects and function, with the gradually tarnishing brass introducing another layer of transformation.
The Last Sultan’s Dwarf by Aldo Mondino
Half-hidden behind a leafy plant beside the spa entrance – perhaps the hotel’s most fitting spot for a weary traveller to pause and recline – The Last Sultan’s Dwarf shows a bearded figure in flowing white robes and a crimson fez stretched against a deep blue backdrop.
Created by Italian painter Aldo Mondino after travels through Morocco, Palestine, Istanbul and India, the work reflects his fascination with Middle Eastern visual culture, and the connections between spirituality and theatre.
L’envers du desir by Arman Fernandez
Tucked away in a leafy corner near the pool at Jumeirah Capri Palace, L’envers du desir catches the Capri sunlight in flashes of dark bronze. Created by French-American artist Arman Fernandez, the towering Venus sculpture is split open with oversized hinges and latches, allowing sections of the figure to swing and shift into different configurations.
Part classical goddess, part surreal treasure chest, the work plays with ideas of sensuality and concealment, transforming an ancient symbol of beauty into something strange and slightly mechanical.
Uomo Corno by Lello Esposito
Created by Neapolitan sculptor Lello Esposito, the towering polished-bronze figure transforms the traditional Italian cornicello – the curved horn charm associated with luck and protection – into a surreal half-man, half-amulet creature dangling from a hook.
The horn itself has roots stretching back to Neolithic symbols of fertility and strength, before becoming synonymous with superstition and folklore in Naples.
Uomo con Maschera and Ab Ovo by Lello Esposito
Esposito is also behind two of Jumeirah Capri Palace’s most eccentric works. Positioned on separate floors, Uomo con Maschera and Ab Ovo combine painted canvases with protruding iron busts inspired by Pulcinella, a mischievous masked character from Neapolitan theatre. Rendered in Esposito’s trademark volcanic reds, oranges and blacks, the pieces bring jolts of colour to the otherwise sugar-white corridors – with the hotel wryly describing them as “vigilant and cheerful colleagues for the staff”.
This page was produced by The National in partnership with Jumeirah Group
