A Journey Through Patina Maldives, Fari Islands: Where Art doesn’t Sit Behind Glass But Lives in the Elements.

Where sculpture meets sand and the horizon is a canvas. New Wave Magazine explores the curated serenity of Patina Maldives, where high-end luxury blends seamlessly with playful artistic wonder.

"Here, we run on 'Island Time', Fari Islands time so that you can enjoy one more hour of daylight in paradise" my Essentialist tells me upon check in. Kindly invited to bask in the delights of one of the most beautiful places in the world, New Wave Magazine took a trip to one out of almost 2000 islands in the Indian ocean, the Fari Islands in the Maldives, where the soft sands are an idyllic beige surrounded by a sparking topaz ocean.

At first glance, Patina Maldives might feel like a dream, one sculpted from salt air, soft sand, and silence. But as you settle into its rhythm, the dream becomes something deeper: a conversation between space, self, and sculpture. Offering 90 one, two and three bedroom bedroom beach and water villas, as well as 20 studios, Patina Maldives is an expert in delivering when it comes to a guest's sanctuary, nourishment and rejuvenation. Providing plush rooms that are both stylish and sleek, they also champion mindfulness and wellness by offering bespoke treatments including Watsu, a Japanese form of aquatic bodywork that is used for deep relaxation and passive aquatic therapy. Included are services of highly trained consultants such as a posture expert and a therapist and the usage of curative and preventative remedies to achieve a calm mind and to restore balance. Guests can also enioy a range of authentic cuisines that are typically farm to table and from a selection of cultures such as Mediterranean, Asian or International. There is also a daily Tuk Tuk gelato shop serving some of the creamiest croissant-flavoured ice-cream as well as smaller trucks serving burgers or Asian bites. Footprints also serves as the children’s educational activity centre and will keep the youngest guests engaged and entertained, both indoors and outdoors.

Whilst my stay was nothing short of exquisite by being presented with five-star hospitality, high-end luxury is often promised, but rarely does it feel so effortlessly generous. At Patina, nothing was too much. Every moment was curated with precision yet carried a sense of ease that’s hard to put into words.

Having opened in May 2021, Patina isn’t just a luxury destination, but it’s also a living gallery. The resort has collaborated with Singapore-based contemporary art consultancy The Artling to create an open-air exhibition unlike any other. Curated by Talenia Phua Gajardo, each piece in the collection was conceived to be interacted with, touched, sat in, wandered through. Art doesn’t sit behind glass and it instead lives in the elements.

Though the island isn’t too large, sustainability is taken seriously. With solar farms and a promise to be 50% renewable by 2030, they’ve also introduced personal bicycles for guests to get around from villas to restaurants, art installations to beaches. There’s something joyfully liberating about gliding along palm-lined paths with the warm sun on your skin, en route to lunch or a sculpture that caught your eye earlier. Art is central to Patina’s identity. Not as background decoration, but as a catalyst for conversation. It's dotted around the island like a treasure map, igniting child-like curiosity and creating talking points among guests and staff alike. And the staff, it must be said, are incredibly knowledgeable about resort’s features and also the stories behind each artwork and the emotions they stir.

You might begin your artistic journey at Home Deep Blue, a six-metre-wide tapestry by New York-based artist Hiroko Takeda, who draws from the Japanese folk craft movement. Her use of blue and green linen evokes the fragile ecology of the island, appearing like the horizon where ocean meets sky. Or perhaps, you might stumble across Life by Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar which represents the language of energy and nature, referencing a prosperous way of life. In the artist's own words, "Life energy is the secret behind human health. Only by feeling the energy are we able to understand the connection between our mind, body and the importance of living in harmony with nature."

(Left - Home Deep Blue by Hiroko Takeda. Right - Life by Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar)

Walk further, and the path opens into a clearing where Synthesis Monoliths by Hongjie Yang rises from the sand like a surreal archaeological site. Eight mirrored stainless-steel columns reflect the viewer and landscape in equal measure, blurring the line between observer and environment. Yang describes the work as “a middle ground... between the viewer and their deeper connection to the larger universe.”

Synthesis Monoliths by Hongjie Yang

Ocean Archaeology Of Our Time by Pamela Longobardi is a striking piece that lives in a very central area of the resort, the restaurant Portico. Created in 2023, the artwork symbolises the ocean's decline with the rise in plastics finding its way in the bodies of water. With the piece featuring nearly 1000 pieces of global ocean plastic, it was created by a collaborative community that recover plastic that has been washed ashore on the Fari Islands. As the Maldives is environmentally threatened and at the forefront of climate change disaster, this work stands as a testament to the collective awakening and taking action.

Ocean Archaeology Of Our Time by Pamela Longobardi

On the edge of the beach, Mexican sculptor José Dávila presents a quiet but powerful contradiction in Los Limites de lo Posible IX. Geometric stone forms meet raw sandstone boulders which acts as a dialogue between control and chaos, permanence and erosion.

Los Limites de lo Posible IX by José Dávila

Then there’s Momento, by Porto-based studio FAHR 021.3: a sweeping white curve of concrete resembling a sail caught in motion or a post-it note it is sometimes described. It’s a place to sit, lie, or simply pass through, offering what co-founder Hugo Reis calls “a small stage” for your own presence on the island.

Momento by FAHR 021.3

But the heart of Patina’s artistic offering is undoubtedly Amarta, a Skyspace by the legendary James Turrell. Entering the pavilion is a transcendent experience as the open ceiling frames the sky, and concealed lighting gently alters your perception of colour and depth. It feels less like viewing the sky, and more like being enveloped by it. “I look at water as spirit,” Turrell said of the work, “and light as that spirit which unites the vision with the eyes closed… with the light that is in the physical world.”

Amarta by James Turrell

It’s rare to find a resort that invites you to play like a child and ponder like a philosopher. The art here isn’t passive as it provokes, soothes, challenges. It lives with you as you move through your day. Even within the private villas, creativity is woven into the experience. Brazilian photographer Cássio Vasconcellos was commissioned to capture Maldivian flora and fauna in a series of vibrant large-scale prints that anchor you in the natural world just beyond your door.

What Patina achieves is more than luxury. It’s a redefinition of what that word can mean and it’s comfort as well as connection. The island reminds you that art isn’t always something to look at. Sometimes, it’s something to live in.