Artist Rex Southwick in his London-based studio

British painter Rex Southwick vividly explores the ideas of aspiration and perception. Across canvases saturated with social media-bright colour, he invites us to view the perfect luxury home, but deconstructed with a behind-the-scenes view of the fantasy. LUX invited him to create a work for our pages

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“Through paint, I honour the maintenance of our environments, giving agency to the overlooked and making the passing permanent” – Rex Southwick, artist, London

Painters of Casino de Monte-Carlo, 2025, by Rex Southwick

rexsouthwick.com

A view of the new bar in the First Lounge in Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow Airport. The Lounge is accessed via a dedicated wing of the terminal

You shouldn’t feel nostalgic for the gilded jet set era when air travel was supposedly more romantic, says Darius Sanai. In truth we have never had it better – and if you’re a Gold card holder of British Airways, based in London, you are in one of the most privileged positions of all

Do you feel a pang of nostalgia when you look at ads and videos from the early decades of jet travel? Superbly turned out 1950s and 60s stewardesses (always stewardesses) fussing over relaxed passengers wearing their Sunday best for the flight?

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Don’t get too nostalgic. Jet travel then was loud, less comfortable, less reliable, and less efficient. The lounges were nothing like what we have today, there was no such thing as a flat bed, and in-flight entertainment was a communal movie when it worked.

And the service? Well, that can be pretty impressive today also.

The British Airways Concorde Lounge, part of the First Wing at Heathrow’s T5

Take my recent experience on British Airways, an airline some on travel forums love to hate, from London to India recently. Before I go any further I know some readers are thinking “luxury magazine editor being positive about an airline – must be a free trip and hoping for another”. For the avoidance of doubt, this trip was fully paid for by me. I haven’t had a free trip from British Airways in my life, and I haven’t even asked the airline for an upgrade since 2011 (premium economy to business, to Montreal). My entire BA experience, as a Gold member, the highest regular tier, has been paid for over the years by me, Condé Nast and LUX, the companies I work for as an Editor-in-Chief.

Read more: Dressing in Van Cleef from piste to party with LUX’s Fabienne

Back to the journey. People rightly wax lyrical about the convenience of airports like Zürich, Hong Kong International and Singapore Changi. And they are all excellent. But none of them offers the service of the British Airways First Wing at Heathrow. Jump on the Heathrow Express, 20 minutes later walk into the terminal and through the dedicated First entrance and security and straight into the British Airways First lounge. There could be chaos in the rest of the terminal, and sometimes there is, but you wouldn’t notice. It takes, on average, 50 minutes from my office in Mayfair to my seat in the Lounge, and it’s frictionless. Pretty good.

The British Airways First cabin, an upgrade from luxury air travel of previous eras

So far so normal for any British Airways Gold card holder.

The next part, though, is quite exceptional. As I was passing through the dedicated security, the lady from British Airways (you’ll find out her name later) wished me a happy trip to Mumbai and asked (as airline staff have to) to check my visa.

This was all in order, and I went through the barrier, but then she came back to me and asked if I had a printout because in her personal experience it can sometimes be challenging otherwise at the other end, even though a confirmation email is technically all you need.

I hadn’t thought to print it out, I said. Caroline said she strongly recommended it. Once I got to the Lounge, just a few metres away in the First Wing, and was relaxing with my preflight glass of champagne (a very nice De Castellane rosé) she popped up and guided me on my phone through the rather complicated process on the Indian visa system website, of turning the visa confirmation into a PDF that could then be printed.

The Club World cabin offers essential comfort for business travellers on long haul and overnight flights

She then emailed it to her own office and disappeared behind the scenes at the First lounge, emerging triumphantly with the printout around 10 minutes later. Like a member of a particularly indulgent royal family, I hadn’t moved at all except to visit the food area for some nori seaweed, miso soup, bulghur salad and slaw.

And on that point: British Airways first has evidently been listening to feedback because there is now a superb array of healthy, vegan, lactose free and other options rather than just the previous hot food buffet.

At this stage, after my third glass of champagne, I wasn’t feeling particularly worried about having the printout of the visa but thanked her nonetheless and wandered off to the plane.

‘A Heathrow First experience and Club World overnight leagues ahead of what our forebears would have had’

After a good night’s sleep in the new British Airways Club world configuration, we started our descent towards Mumbai. The new beds are better in every way than the previous configuration which had the irritation of forward and backward facing seats next to each other, so you would spend the first and last 15 minutes of your flight staring slightly uncomfortably into the face of your neighbour before one of you summoned up the nerve to pull the screen shut or press a button to raise it. Although the new configuration is slightly less romantic if you are in a window seat as you don’t quite have the same sense of being cut off from the rest of the plane, with two windows to yourself. Oh well.

Read more: The Badrutts Serlas Suite in St Moritz

Anyway, after landing in Mumbai, mind focused by coffee and the tropical heat outside, I wondered if Caroline‘s efforts would be proven to be an overabundance of caution. The experience of the traveler in front of me proved otherwise. I listened carefully to the interchange with the passport control man. Where are you coming from? London. Do you have a visa? Yes, here’s the email (shows him phone). But did he have a printout? No, it didn’t ask for a printout. Oh. That’s a problem.

The poor traveller was sent back, past the back of the queue, out of sight towards the plane to deal with what sounded like a vague but slumbering Indian bureaucracy – added to which, it was a Sunday morning. I never saw that traveller again; even after a 20 minute wait for baggage. Who knows if he was even allowed in.

‘The new beds are better in every way than the previous configuration’

My own entry was extremely smooth. Passport, visa email, and, in my hand, visa printout. Thank you to Caroline for providing the same level of service as in our nostalgic collective memory from the 1960s – and British Airways for providing a Heathrow First experience and Club World overnight leagues ahead of what our forebears would have had, with their upright seats.

That may sound trivial to some, but for international business travellers it is extremely important; sleeping in an upright chair is not anything any of us would try at home, yet that is what you would have to do in the Golden Age of air travel. I don’t think they had miso soup, wakame seaweed and bulgur salad either – those roast trolleys being trundled down the first class aisles in the old pictures look fun, but think about it, do you really want to be eating roast lamb and roast potatoes on a long haul flight?

My uncle was a senior executive at BOAC, the international precursor to BA (the one with the cool bags) in the jet-set heyday of the 1960s and 70s. I can think of all kinds of ways his quality of life was better than mine in general, starting with not having to check his phone 24/7, and being safe in the knowledge that his fun times on international trips would never be recorded for social media.

When he retired, he was given free First Class travel on the nascent British Airways for life. But, when he flew to Hong Kong or Mumbai, as he frequently did, he spent his overnights in an upright chair (with a bit of recline), in his suit. And when he checked in at Heathrow (Terminal 3 for intercontinental departures back then), he’d stand in line alongside the other check in booths, and go through the main security lines like anyone else, and then work his way, airside, to a much less extensive lounge, with beef and gravy and sausages available.

The bar at the British Airways First Lounge has an excellent rosé champagne available for free pour, made by the owners of Laurent-Perrier. although LUX searched without reward for a fine white Burgundy

I have written before in GQ about the slight contradiction of British Airways economy class, and short haul business class, not delivering what the airline’s brand in the First lounge promises in terms of seats and comfort. And that, conversely, the Gold Card holder’s experience is even better in many ways than flying private. You can read that article here, but only after finishing this one.

The economy class experience is unlikely to change given the competition in those sectors. And it’s a shame that their previously superb wine selection has been cost-cut (with the exception of the champagnes), although BA is not unique in this. At Qatar Airways (cited by many as the world’s best) flagship Al Safwa First lounge in Doha, the wines are a shadow of their former selves just 10 years ago. Airlines know that business class travellers will tolerate pub-level sauvignon blanc, it appears, which is a little cynical: a decent white Burgundy adds a touch of class that no gooseberry-and-kiwi Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc could dream of.

But all in all, as a Gold member living in London, flying long haul, I can certainly testify that, in the words of another famous Brit, “You’ve never had it so good”.

Read more: Inside Diriyah, Saudi Arabia’s new-old cultural city

Meanwhile, a previous iteration of Caroline may well have existed in the 50s and 60s: but thank goodness she does so now.

Darius Sanai has been a Gold card holder of British Airways since 2012,. He accepted no complimentary or discounted flightsor  hospitality from the airline during those years or for this article

LUX’s intrepid Gstaad correspondent Fabienne Amez-Droz

How is the Gstaad private jet set accoutring itself this winter? Fabienne Amez-Droz, LUX contributor and Gstaad resident, picks from the jewellery box of Parisian joaillier Van Cleef & Arpels

1. Libertad earrings

Libertad earrings, transformable with over 12 carats of DVVS1 diamonds, designed by Van Cleef & Arpels

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For when your black night-out look needs that extra sparkle – because at GreenGo at 2am when it gets going, sparkle isn’t optional – it’s my entrance ticket.

The Van Cleef & Arpels Fleures d’Hawaï secret watch in white gold, aquamarine, diamond, and mother-of-pearl

2. Fleurs d’Hawaï secret watch

Read more: A conversation with Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar

Telling the time? Please! We’re on holiday. And in Gstaad at that. But a jewellery watch? Yes. Always.

Van Cleef & Arpels’ Flowerlace collection brings together two sources of inspiration: nature and couture

3. Flowerlace clip pendant

Fresh powder, friends over from Zurich, a casual lunch at Wasserngrat – that’s when I’ll be wearing the Flowerlace.

The En Haute Mer transformable necklace draws inspiration from the sailor’s knots used on full-rigged ships

4. En haute mer transformable necklace

Read more: Binith Shah and Maria Sukkar on UMŌ’s ultimate luxury 

Those who can ski can also sail, hence Gstaad’s yacht club. These sailor’s knots prove nautical elegance belongs just as much in the mountains.

The Splendeur Indienne ring, inspired by Mughal floral motifs and made with emeralds, rubies and sapphires

5. Splendeur Indienne ring

Snow here is just background sparkle – the real shine is going to be on my finger.

The Moussaillon necklace, made to look like a sailor’s neckerchief

6. Moussaillon necklace

In Gstaad, Christmas and New Year aren’t just holidays, they’re a runway. This bow-tied stunner ensures you’ll outshine every invitation-only party.

vancleefarpels.com

The new Serlas Suite at Badrutt’s Palace, connected to the historic building by an underground luxe-zone

If you’re looking for a place to stay this winter, start with a new suite in an old St Moritz Palace, Badrutt’s. LUX Editor-in-Chief Darius Sanai reports

You’ve landed at Samedan in the Gulfstream after a flight from St Barts laced with just a little too much Yamazaki. You are now in the back of the Maybach, long elegant blond man/blonde woman (take your pick) by your side, heading for town, with Zina’s party at Dracula tonight and the need to wake up in time to do a couple of runs (Cresta or Corviglia, either is ok) with the long blonde ahead of Clayton’s lunch at Paradiso’s private room, up the mountain.

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Where do you stay? At the new Serlas Suite at Badrutt’s Palace, of course. This has all the advantages of the historic Badrutt’s building across the street (and connected through an underground luxe-zone), and it’s part of a brand new building (known as the Serlas Wing) designed by Antonio Citterio, Italian architect and St Moritz regular. It’s also directly above Hauser & Wirth.

You’ll enjoy the new Badrutt’s. It’s just like the old Badrutt’s, but with even more Loro Piana.

badruttspalace.com

The venerable Suvretta House amidst the forests above St Moritz

Suvretta House, just outside St Moritz, could be the perfect combination: a self-contained resort with celebrated restaurants and its own ski lift, a snowball’s throw from the parties in town, and right next to the even more exclusive parties up the road

One slight contradiction in some glamorous mountain resorts is that sometimes you don’t feel you are truly immersed in the mountains. As dramatic as the views might be, mountain resorts are still urban developments.

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Combine that with crowded lifts – we think it’s amazing that nobody has invented a private lift system in major resorts so the superwealthy don’t need to be in the same car as the merely slightly wealthy – and you have a situation that is less of a mountain retreat than you may have hoped.

The new open-air pool at Suvretta House is in communion with nature

Neither apply to Suvretta House. This grand luxurious palace of a hotel is perched on its own hilltop, surrounded by forests, just a 10-minute walk – or two-minute drive in a Ferrari Purosangue – from the town of St Moritz. But its location is gloriously, famously quiet. Step out of the hotel in summer and you find yourself in the middle of a forest walking trail. In winter, you are crunching through a deep snowfield in the heart of the forest.

Read more: Inside Diriyah, Saudi Arabia’s new-old cultural city

Suvretta House is its own destination. It has its own ski lift rising up from its grounds – the nearest thing you can get to a private ski lift – connecting to the big Corviglia ski area. You can literally ski into the hotel – an amenity not shared by any other palace hotel in the area. You are also – and you can visit many times and not even realise this – in the heart of the most exclusive community of St Moritz: Suvretta, which is a discreet collection of villas (mansions, really) occupied by the European aristocracy and global superwealthy scattered on the hillside immediately above.

Suvretta’s indoor pool with a view that stretches across the Engadine valley, accompanied by an extensive new spa wing

There are no indications to this effect, no glossy shopping malls, no branches of Nobu – it’s just something you know. Many of those who own the villas all around are owners of brands that people wear at dinner.

Read more: A conversation with Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar

Our room at Suvretta House looked out over the back gardens – tennis and other sports in summer, ice rink in winter – stretching out to the forest that undulates down towards one of the great lakes of the Engadine. Beyond that, only mountains and wilderness. Just looking at the view felt like being in a spa.

The Suvretta House Stube is a comfortable place to dine, offering Swiss classics with a lighter touch

Nobody can come to Suvretta without experiencing the Stube, the casually named restaurant that is both cosy, relaxed and extremely gastronomic. We could eat there every day, due to the magnificent quality of its simple dishes. We also love its wine list: even the house wine is a globally renowned Chardonnay from the nearby Graubünden wine region. We just couldn’t get enough.

The huge indoor pool is now accompanied by an extensive spa wing, meaning there is even less reason to leave Suvretta House. There is a wealth of luxury resorts being built across the Alps, but there will never be anything like Suvretta House, which feels like a private club for the discerning and knowledgeable, but open to guests.

suvrettahouse.ch

A view of Salwa palace in At-Turaif, a UNESCO site in Saudi Arabia and heart of the new Diriyah development

A vast development on the outskirts of Riyadh, Diriyah is being built around the foundations of the kingdom’s historic capital. Combining culture, leisure, education, and plenty of terraces where you can sip (alcohol-free) cocktails with a view, it could just be the most important of Saudi Arabia’s gigaprojects, reflects Editor-in-Chief Darius Sanai after a recent visit

Along a huge, sunny valley, boutique super luxury resorts sprout like oases on hillside crests. In the middle of the valley is a 27 hole golf course, designed by Greg Norman, with the practice fairway nestled in its own private valley. Resorts have dramatic sunset views (or sunrise if you are so inclined), there is a riding stables, polo field, hiking, biking and riding trails. In between the resorts is a scattering of high end super luxury homes, nestled in their own grounds.

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You probably wouldn’t guess that this scene was in Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia (or technically just outside), And in reality it isn’t quite like that yet, but it will be very soon. I visited recently and saw the luxury resorts, to be operated by Aman, Faena, Oberoi and other luxury hotel brands, topping out. Plantations were being planted, roads built, and the golf clubhouse was so complete that you could hit balls down the practice fairway in the presence of a pro, appropriately sourced from Scotland. Although all around, the rest of the scheme is very much a work in progress.

The Bujairi Terrace in Diriyah. Unlike the city of Riyadh, the new development features organic architecture and colours

Wadi Safar, the “Bel Air of Arabia”, it’s just one part of the vast Diriyah development just outside Riyadh. You could even call it a small part, even though Wadi Safar is itself the size of Manhattan and roughly the same shape, a valley a few kilometres wide and a few kilometres longer, enclosed by cliffs.

Diriyah itself is an entire new city, built out of the ruins of quite an old one, the former capital of the country that was raised to the ground by an Ottoman invasion. Not that much remains of old Diriyah, but what there is has been lovingly restored and reconstructed and around it a cultural city has been and is being created.

It’s the biggest project of its type in the world, and probably in the history of the world – perhaps Romulus and Remus building Rome at the bidding of the she-wolf might have matched it.

The official statistics provided to media say that this government-driven plan will create over 180,000 jobs, include nearly 40 luxury hotels, including The Ritz-Carlton, Baccarat, Armani, Raffles, Faena, and Chedi, 18,000 residences, including 300 branded residences, and 566,000 sqm of lifestyle retail and F&B offerings, among much else. (As such, it will also likely double the world’s annual sales of “nosecco” and ingredients for zero-alcohol cocktails, as all those F&B offerings and luxury hotels are still alcohol-free, Saudi being a “dry” country in more ways than one.)

Wadi Safar, being built now, is one of the world’s most ambitious luxury residential developments, with a 27-hole golf course and riding stables at its heart (photograph by the author)

We in the media have been hearing about the Diriyah development for years; since the place nothing but cliffs, desert scrub, and a few historical ruins – so it was fascinating to finally visit and see some of the projections in the original plan actually spring to life.

Diriyah itself is in a strategic location, on a series of cliffs outside what is now the sprawling and rather featureless modern city of Riyadh. Unlike the capital city, Diryah has, in places, relief, cliffsides and views. The developers have been sure to highlight and create features aplenty in Diriyah.

Read more: Rachel Verghis interviews Sam Falls

You can walk along a cliff top, lined with restaurants and cafés, across a walkway to the ancient palace (part restored) and look at an artful reconstruction of the family tree of Al-Saud family, while weaving your way through the old and restored buildings and surrounding courtyards and walkways. You see history in a way you never could before, here. Bujairi Terrace, where the restaurants and cafes reside, is actually a place you could imagine chilling out on a date, 0% Margaritas in hand.

Elsewhere you find the Futures Museum, which opened with a spectacular show by the brilliant digital artist Refik Anadol.

The Bujairi Terrace offers high-class dining and views

I do wonder why they don’t make more of art as a conveying and legitimising force in what is after all a new cultural city, but was told the designated arts district of JAX is in a different part of Riyadh – although art in real life, and its collectors, flows seamlessly with culture and cannot be confined; while luxury retail is about people shopping for brands, art is about endorsement by individuals, which can be immensely valuable for soft-power branding in a place like Diriyah.

Indeed, is notable and admirable that unlike neighbouring Abu Dhabi and Qatar and Dubai, Saudi Arabia has resisted the route of using international brands to create its cultural image. Where Abu Dhabi has the Louvre and Guggenheim, Doha has its Jean Nouvel and IM Pei designed museums and Dubai has Tadao Ando creating a museum of modern art, Diriyah is being remade as a place that highlights Saudi culture with links to the world.

I think this kind of thoughtful approach speaks of a confidence that, guided correctly, will serve the rapidly modernising Kingdom well. Perhaps they will also realise that their cultural narrative is best amplified by cultural leaders (full disclosure: LUX does this with our partnerships with UBS, Richard Mille, Louis Roederer, and our various art and cultural prizes for country partners).

Everywhere in Diriyah the buildings have a pleasing and warm terracotta colour and new buildings are constructed in architectural sympathy with ancient styles, including triangular cooling windows (even though they all obviously now have the fierce air-conditioning needed in this climate).

A close up of the ancient walls of At Turaif

A note about the climate: you may think, on hearing that a huge hyper luxury development and cultural city are being developed in Riyadh, that the climate may not favour living there. And if you are partial to northern climates, you may be right. But they said that about Singapore in the 1950s, and more recently about Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha, and that has not stopped a vast relocation of wealth to these places. Air conditioning, inside and out can work wonders (regardless of the sustainability concerns).

And there is something about the climate of Riyadh which is actually more attractive than that of Dubai and the Gulf states. Inland, far from the sea, and at an elevation of several hundred metres, it benefits from dry air and cooler nights, and it doesn’t feel like you are wading through hot mud because the humidity is low. Summers are extremely hot, but it’s more like Arizona than Dubai, summer and winter. Less steamy.

Read more: Inside the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort

At Diriyah’s heart is the At-Turaif UNESCO World Heritage site; around it is being built cultural hubs like a new opera house, a university, a museum, as well as unimaginable amounts of retail and residential property. Some of it is already there, and you can certainly have the most pleasant experience that Riyadh offers amid the mud-brick architecture of At-Turaif, in outdoor cafes and restaurants (or indoors in the summer). Much of the Diriyah concept, however, still exists only as a sea of arid ground under a forest of cranes.

But things move fast here. The first luxury hotels open next year in Wadi Safar. You can play golf there now. Saudi Arabia is a country in a hurry. There is some justified scepticism about these gigaprojects: The Line, part of the futuristic Neom gigaproject elsewhere in the country, is being reevaluated. Diriyah is at a much more advanced stage, is properly tangible, and most importantly is at the edge of an existing metropolis of more than seven million people, with its international component growing fast. The people we met working on the Diriyah project have the zeal of a new generation determined to reshape their country’s future. Watch this space, and be prepared to be positively surprised.

diriyah.sa/en

A portrait of artist Sam Falls in Maison Ruinart, the oldest champagne house in the world

American artist Sam Falls is known for the entwinement of nature in his works. The Ruinart Conversations with Nature artist 2025, whose works have been shown at institutions including the Pompidou, Fondation Louis Vuitton and MOCA, speaks with LUX Contributing Editor Rachel Verghis about art, the natural world and loss

Rachel Verghis: You grew up in Vermont. How did the natural world inspire you and your early art?

Sam Falls: I think I took the natural world for granted, it was embedded in me. It came out later creatively, but at the time it was pure enjoyment.

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RV: Your contribution to the Ruinart Conversations with Nature 2025 cycle focuses on biodiversity. Is that a concern for you?

SF: It’s a constant for everyone living today, so it’s a big element of my work. It comes out through the subject matter, geography and biodiversity that are site-specific to each area I work with.

Rewilding by Sam Falls, shown at Frieze London

RV: The Ruinart work has been shown across the world. Do you follow the reactions to it?

SF: Yes, I’ve been following the reactions from Frieze Los Angeles, Frieze New York and Tiffany Pop Up in New York. I’m very happy with them.

RV: Is it important in your art to highlight not just nature but the threats to the natural world?

SF: It’s important to speak to the viewer, but also leave space for them. I don’t lead with politics, it’s inherent and available to the sensitive viewer.

Read more: Inside the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort

RV: You experienced loss at an early age with the death of your mother. Is there a work of art from this time that has stayed with you?

SF: Yes, Christina’s World by Andrew Wyeth. It’s an American painting from 1948, and it’s in the MoMA. I saw that when I was 10. It struck me technically and emotionally and it stuck with me.

RV: Your children appear in your work. Why?

SF: Well, they emerged in my work as soon as they emerged in my life.

Sam Falls with his artwork King’s Crossing

RV: You once said your work had taken on a more melancholic tone. Why is that?

SF: I think the seasons and the passage of time in nature are more rapid than the seasons of our life. So it’s a microcosm of the passing of life through death that can be translated visually in art.

RV: You use nature to develop the canvas. Can you tell us about solarisation and photography?

SF: I made the decision early on to abandon the mechanical apparatus of photography and use natural sunlight. The process became a valuable source of connectivity to the viewer, because it is mundane and available to everyone.

Read more: A conversation with Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar

RV: Are you an environmental artist?

SF: I’m an artist using the environment, not an environmental artist.

RV: You have rejected the term “land art” to describe your practice. Why?

SF: Land art remains in the landscape. My art is a symbiotic creative process with nature. I remove it and leave no traces. The land is available for the next human or animal to experience it differently.

The process of creating King’s Crossing, made from nature and in nature

RV: What one element remains constant throughout your work?

SF: I would say, care for the viewer and also connection to the primary source.

RV: Is photography still apart from fine art?

SF: It became so familiarised it’s now accepted. But because it is a wider cultural phenomenon in the economy and the capitalist language, it is problematic. I use its representational assets as they apply to art history, rather than to the language of capitalism, integrating it fluidly.

RV: You once said, “Time is the thing that gives me the most anxiety.” Why?

SF: Well, because it is a march to death!

RV: In your practice, is decay a constant?

SF: Yes!

ruinart.com

Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar photographed for the Winter 2025/26 issue of LUX by Ben Cope

Two years ago, French-Iranian artist Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar moved from the south of France to Qatar, to the bemusement of many. Now, he finds himself one of the spearheads of a developing art scene turbocharged by the arrival of Art Basel Qatar this winter, and framed by a programme of museum openings to rival any in the world

Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar is an enigma of a contemporary artist. Born in the teens, he subsequently lived in the UAE and London, building his practice and gaining business qualifications before settling in Cap-Ferrat, in the south of France. Over the past years, with his studio in this wealthy residential peninsula, he gained a roster of international collectors, as well as shows in London, Germany, and Monaco. Then, in 2023, he abruptly moved his practice and his family to Doha, Qatar. His gallerist, Setareh, meanwhile, is based in Berlin, Düsseldorf and London. Behnam-Bakhtiar will be having a solo show at Setareh London opening end of May 2026. 

Behnam-Bakhtiar’s move to Cap-Ferrat in 2010 presaged what would become today’s contemporary art and collector revival in the stretch from Cannes, through Cap-Ferrat itself, to Monaco. Not long after he moved to Doha, it appeared he had again predicted the flow of the global contemporary art ecosystem, when it was dramatically announced that his new home would host a new Art Basel fair — Art Basel Qatar — in February 2026.

A portrait of the artist in his Doha studio, photographed by Ben Cope

His practice, with its slurred abstract mixed-media oeuvres — light and joyous on the surface but hinting at either darkness or a different kind of tension underneath — has evolved even during his short time in Doha. His works seem more focused, more technical. His persona, at once thoughtful, combative, and soulful, remains as it always was: he can be as charming as anyone in his family (his great-uncle was, famously, the last prime minister appointed by the Shah of Iran), as hermetic as any artist (as he explains in our interview below), and as efficient as a business leader.

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Behnam-Bakhtiar speaks openly about his personal traumas. He is not an easy person — but then, what real artist is? And his art is good enough for me to have bought (at full price), and it has developed since. We are looking forward to seeing how this unique mid-career artist develops with the burgeoning art scene in Qatar.

Darius Sanai

Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar’s Doha studio, showcasing the oils he uses to create his signature style of peinture raclée

Angeliki Kim Perfetti: So, Sassan, why Doha?

Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar: Simple. It was a real coup de cœur for us. I decided to choose Doha and Qatar as a second home — which has become our first home for the time being, as my son goes to school here now. Many of my collectors in Europe, the UK, and the States didn’t get it: “From Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat to Doha!” And I’m like, “No, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and Doha.”

I met many key people in the contemporary art, cultural, and museum scenes here. There is a lot of excitement, energy, and exciting initiatives set in place for the upcoming years. Opening an atelier here in Doha felt like the right thing to do.

AKP: Always ahead of the curve!

SB-B: Haha! It seems I was. I’m just saying, honestly, I’m very early here in Doha. And that’s what I love about it. When I came here I started meeting interesting people, collectors, and key figures in the cultural scene, as well as the very few gallerists present. It’s literally the beginning and I was like, “I need to be there.”

Detail from Energy in Nature, by Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar

I’m always attracted to visionary communities in the arts and culture. It made sense, and it was an organic process. I made great friends and was embraced by the cultural community. I am basically the first international artist who moved to Doha by himself. I just came because I love the place—Doha is a hidden treasure.

What came next was the creation of a bridge between my practice in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, what the south of France has always represented in contemporary arts, and the state of Qatar.

Read more: Inside the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort

AKP: What was it about Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat that had resonated with you?

SB-B: When I moved to Saint-Jean from London 15 years ago, people were asking me why I moved. The question was about the geographical journey, but the answer was about my journey as a human being and my creative world. It’s very straightforward: the move was about nature, energy, light, and the environment, and that’s why I love Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.

Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar, in the midst of his career within the burgeoning art scene in Qatar

In the region from Arles and St-Paul to Saint-Rémy-de-Provence and Aix-en-Provence, you can see the tracks of great artists. Funnily enough, it was Darius who was one of the first people to call it; he said that Sassan’s work resembles a melted Monet and Paul Signac. I was really pulled in by the south of France already being my home. There I continued to study nature, the light, and I started painting energy.

AKP: When did your creative journey start, and what brought about your signature style?

SB-B: I started at the age of four with my father, who taught me how to paint. We lived together on the Île Saint-Louis in Paris, and he would sit me by the window to paint the views. Our weekly museum visits—seeing works by Monet, Signac, Van Gogh, Pierre Bonnard and others—planted seeds that later affected my work without me realising it.

I always had a close relationship with colours found in nature, how their shades would change under different light was a fascinating concept for me as a child. It’s probably why I spent years trying to recreate this effect on my living paintings. I was in Iran between the ages of eight and 18, and was mesmerised by the Persian touch and their attention to detail when creating art. Trying mosaic, mirror works and Ghalamkari entered me into a different world. It seems the mixing of these two creative worlds, alongside my vision of humanity and my life experience brought forth my signature style.

Energy in Spring, by Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar

AKP: What is your working practice? What is your starting point and how does it evolve?

SB-B: Nobody sees how I paint; not even my wife has properly seen how I create my works, which I think is a bit weird. Once I start painting I’m in my space and I do not like to be disturbed, I don’t like to have an external energy enter my bubble.

My work is not planned, there are no sketches, there is no pre-planning in any way. My painting process is literally the release of the emotions I have at a particular moment. It can start with something rather darker, and when the work is finished, the darkness is transformed into a positive tangible experience on the surface of the canvas.

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As I keep on working, layer by layer, all the previous layers are covered, which gradually transforms the darkness into something positive and beautiful to look at – and on this I’m quoting my audience and my collectors.

I work predominantly with natural pigments and various natural media, so my process has become some sort of an alchemy at this stage. I usually let go of my tools when I see that the piece actually transfers that energy I’m looking for, and it needs to be poignant, so you can have a chemical reaction in your brain, leading you to think differently about life and humanity.

The artist at his studio in Doha with his wife Maria, an interiors entrepreneur, and son

AKP: And you need to be alone for this?

SB-B: One of my collectors, a very close friend, saw me paint one time, and it was a beautiful journey for both of us. As a contemporary artist with an old-school soul, I do like to sit down with some of my close collectors and have a vintage bottle of red, discuss art and life and everything in between. And one day I was in the mood, and I started painting in front of him – and this has happened one time only – so he was just sitting there watching me, and at the end he said, “Now I understand how you transform the darkness into something positive in your work and life!”.

AKP: You are in Qatar at a time that is so exciting. How did your move first come about?

SB-B: I came to Qatar in December 2023. And a year and a half later people ask me, “Sassan, how did you do this? You’re such a visionary guy.” And I’m like, “What are you talking about?” I just followed my gut feeling, and I’m very transparent about it. I really saw something great about the art and cultural scene, as well as the immense potential in an upcoming ecosystem.

We were flying back from the Maldives to Nice to go to Cap-Ferrat and we always had stopovers in Doha. We decided this one time to stay in Doha for a week and explore the city. That was in November 2023. So we explored everywhere and we went to a place called the Inland Sea, where the desert meets the sea. It’s beautiful.

‘My process has become some sort of an alchemy at this stage’ – Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar

I remember laying down watching the stars in the sky in the evening. And I had this feeling of having been there already. I felt very rooted, this calmness took over my whole being in a way that was familiar. So I just went with that. I thought, “I really feel good here.” I don’t know if it was the beauty of that place, if it was looking at the reflection of the moon and the stars on the sea, or the energy present. Something made me feel at ease. Two months later, we were here.

AKP: It had to be done.

Read more: Head to Baku Art Weekend for a unique cultural celebration

SB-B: It just pulled me in. There is this sense of calmness here, which is hard to explain. You have to be here to feel it. It allows you to simply live and be, which in turn had an impact on my life and practice. The energy of this place took me back to my childhood and allowed me to deal with so much buried trauma. It freed me from so much weight I was carrying, and changed my outlook on life. The Qataris are wonderful people, very kind, respectful, and bon vivant. Culture is very important to them, and I appreciate the many friendships I have made here.

AKP: How has it developed in your work?

‘Creation isn’t a one-time act but an eternal performance, and every ending seeds a new beginning’ – Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar

SB-B: I am a workaholic, so in summer I like to disappear and usually end up on an island with my wife and son, and I just meditate. So we were in the Maldives. After meditating, I pick up my sketchbook, creating ideas, not drawing but writing. When I have an idea, I write it and I keep developing that idea, and the latest is a new body of works called Heartbeats.

Channelling earth’s energy to bloom to its full potential, a flower is a symbol in Heartbeats, marking key moments in our lives, whether towards evolution and love, or destruction and darkness. Flowers embody human principles of growth, attraction, and renewal, and can teach us to awaken to our inner light and root in Earth’s energy. By pursuing truth and vitality, we each contribute to a collective blossoming—a human evolution marked by resilience, beauty, and unity.

Under the guiding sun, humanity transforms into a garden, where every flower’s growth illuminates the path to a vital, truthful, interconnected future. Representing hope and interconnectedness, the flowers on the canvas symbolise resilience, encouraging humans to act with integrity even in challenging circumstances.

It is not only what we do, but its source, whose metaphysical action determines the value of all human action with every heartbeat. There is a dance of creation implying rhythm: the ebb and flow of the seasons, the pulse of heartbeats, the oscillation between destruction and renewal. In this view, creation isn’t a one-time act but an eternal performance, and every ending seeds a new beginning.

Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar for the cover of LUX’s Winter 2025/26 issue, designing our logo in his signature style

Heartbeats comes from the time I spent as a young teenager in the vast wild tulip fields of the Alborz mountains, north of Tehran. I always compared my life to these tulip fields, growing back each season no matter how harsh the circumstances. In my eyes, these wild tulips, blooming despite adversity, paralleled human resilience in facing life’s challenges. Perhaps our primary responsibility is to evolve as beings who are conduits for the supreme creative power of the universe, similarly to flowers.

AKP: What are your thoughts on Art Basel Qatar and art in the wider region?

SB-B: I believe they have chosen the best place for such a fair in the region. I think there is a nice synergy. Holding the fair at M7 and at the Doha Design District makes sense, and I’m looking forward to experiencing the fair in Doha. It’s surely a new page in the contemporary and modern art story of Qatar.

sassanbehnambakhtiar.com

Interview by Angeliki Kim Perfetti

Photographs by Ben Cope

Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort, with its 10 acres of gardens

At Blue Bay Marcel Ravin in Monte Carlo, chef Ravin’s poetic Martinique-meets-Mediterranean cuisine has been rewarded with two Michelin stars – and transformed the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort into one of the principality’s most exciting culinary destinations. When Ravin invited three-Michelin-starred French chef Anne-Sophie Pic to a special collaboration at his restaurant within a restaurant, the result was culinary magic

LUX: Marcel, how was your experience of the “four-hands” dinner, where you worked with chef Anne-Sophie Pic?

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Marcel Ravin: Wonderfully good! Chef Anne-Sophie Pic has everything you look for in a chef. The camaraderie, the sense of sharing and the respect for the teams made this dinner a moment suspended in time.

Chefs Anne-Sophie Pic and Marcel Ravin, creating a four-hands dinner at Blue Bay Marcel Ravin

LUX: What else would you love to do and achieve at Blue Bay, Marcel Ravin?

MR: I would like to finalise the concept of the restaurant within the restaurant, La Table de Marcel. This is a place of expression with just eight seats, where we will offer an exceptional gastronomic experience to privileged guests, combining culinary art and culture. The goal: to make it a Michelin-starred restaurant itself.

LUX: Have your ideas for your cuisine changed over the years?

MR: It is important for anyone with a passion to maximise the possibilities of the knowledge they have acquired. For me, it’s an eternal renewal based on research at the cutting edge of creativity.

The two chefs at work together for the event, which was part of the Monte-Carlo Festival des Étoiles 2025

A Stay at the Bay

We all know that Monte Carlo is a glamorous destination—perhaps for a bit of showing off your Graff diamonds, drifting around in your Ferrari and being seen in the right places at the right times. But for beach and cuisine, it may not have been top of your list of considerations.

Read more: A conversation with artist-poet Arch Hades

Well, reconsider. Driven by a new generation living and staying there, and by investment from the principality, it is now becoming a prime destination for both.

The hotel’s lagoon area looks out to sea, away from the crowds

Monaco now hosts frequent “four hands” dinners, where multi–Michelin-starred chefs collaborate to create spectacular evenings in the principality’s new array of luxury restaurants. Many of the dinners are led by the two-Michelin-starred chef Marcel Ravin, who runs the Blue Bay restaurant and oversees everything culinary at the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort.

Whether you go for one of the special collaborative events or for dinner at Blue Bay, it is spectacular. The terrace features well-spaced tables looking out to sea with a view of the mountains behind. Ravin’s cuisine blends Creole and Mediterranean influences with creativity and panache. Colours and flavours are natural, vibrant and entirely original, as in signature dishes such as Oeuf Monte-Carlo, with truffle, cassava and passion fruit.

A lunch table with a view at Las Brisas, a summer restaurant at the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort

The Monte-Carlo Bay is a resort within a resort: by day, stroll along the terrace underneath Blue Bay and you come across its huge, organically shaped pool, which wraps around a rock garden and is lined with white sand. All you need do is settle down on a lounger and choose a view of the pool in one direction or the sea in the other.

Read more: Head to Baku Art Weekend for a unique cultural celebration

Lunch, meanwhile, is just around the corner—at Las Brisas, perhaps the best setting in Monte Carlo. It sits right by the water’s edge with views of the Mediterranean and the mountains. Sip some Perrier-Jouët Blanc de Blancs champagne—an excellent choice, with lightness and florality—and enjoy simple, beautifully crafted Mediterranean cuisine with a fitting blue vibe, given you are surrounded by sea on three sides. Make sure you get a table right by the water.

On our final night, we dined at Jondal à La Vigie, a takeover of a spot inside a pine forest on the next peninsula over, on the other side of the bay. It took 10 minutes to walk there, but if it’s too hot, it’s just a two-minute car transfer. This cuisine, curated by the famous Ibiza spot, is different again, blending Spanish and trans-Mediterranean influences. We strongly recommend pairing the food with the excellent white Burgundy available by the glass. The vibe is super relaxed, without the drumming music you get in so many Monaco places.

And the beach? There’s the beach club exactly between the two, plus the massive resort pool at the Monte-Carlo Bay. You don’t need to venture into “town” at all for a gastro sunshine break next summer. And it’s all just 40 minutes from Nice International Airport.

montecarlosbm.com