What’s on View Across from Check-in? How the Quin Hotel Turned The Lobby Into an Art Gallery

where ny art 2 The lobby showpiece at The Quin hotel is an imposing 15-foot video art wall pieced together from flatpanel screens.

At its debut last fall, the hotel touted the flexibility of video art and announced the wall’s content would change like an art gallery, veering from original work commissioned by the hotel to pieces from, well, any era.

We’ve heard that one before, but the Quin meant it. When I stopped by this past weekend, the wall’s content was once again different from my previous visits.

The current show features vintage black-and-white images from Magnum Photos – some familiar, some iconic and nearly all linked to New York, like James Dean Times Square, 1955 by Dennis Stock and Arthur Miller in Front of the Brooklyn Bridge, 1954 by Elliott Erwitt. There’s even a hotel connection – Erwitt’s Marlene Dietrich at the Waldorf Astoria, 1959.

You can plop onto a chic sofa in the high-ceiling lobby and watch the video show as a young Woody Allen morphs into a not-so-young John Steinbeck into a not-a-bit-young Gloria Swanson.

Magnum photos on the big screens

If you prefer your photos framed a selection of crisp black-and-white prints marches across an

opposite wall, complete with rate cards should you want one for keeps (they’re priced between $1,500 and $3,000 — the Erwitt prints are signed).

As part of the hotel’s arts program, representatives from Magnum will be on hand throughout the show to discuss the work, so get in touch with the hotel for a schedule if you’re intrigued. And if photos aren’t your medium, look for another lobby show around mid-April.

The Quin, 101 West 57th Street at Sixth Avenue; 212 245-7846