On Washington Avenue, inside the storied halls of The Wolfsonian, whisky steps quietly into the realm of art.
To mark its 25th anniversary, cult Scotch whisky house Compass Box has unveiled its first-ever art and design exhibition—an immersive, month-long celebration of imagination, craft, and visual storytelling. Titled Imaginarium: The Fantastical World of Compass Box and Stranger & Stranger, the exhibition runs through January 4, 2026, inviting visitors into a universe where whisky is not merely blended, but authored.
From the outset, Compass Box has occupied a singular position in the whisky world. Neither traditionalist nor provocateur, the brand has long rejected convention in favor of creativity—an ethos that finds its most vivid expression in this exhibition.
A Cabinet of Curiosities
Walking through Imaginarium feels less like entering a gallery and more like discovering a cabinet of curiosities. Rare labels, unseen sketches, original artworks, and intimate creative notes unfold the story of a whisky house that has always treated its bottles as canvases.
Iconic expressions—including Hedonism, The Entertainer, Brûlée Royale, Phenomenology, and Rogue’s Banquet—appear not as products, but as characters in a larger narrative. Each label, intricate and enigmatic, reflects a world imagined long before the whisky reached the glass.
The exhibition also celebrates Compass Box’s long-standing collaboration with Stranger & Stranger, the international design agency behind many of the brand’s most arresting visuals. Together, the two have blurred the boundaries between packaging and art, crafting labels that are as expressive as the liquids they contain.
Building Worlds, Not Bottles
“We invented the word whiskymaker back in 2000 because we believed what we were doing went far beyond blending,” says Angela D’Orazio, Creative Director of Whiskymaking at Compass Box. “We’ve always believed in creating entire worlds around our whiskies.”
That philosophy—part alchemy, part storytelling—has guided the brand since its inception. Stranger & Stranger’s designs, often lush, surreal, and richly symbolic, have helped bring those imagined worlds to life.
“Our collaboration has always been built on shared imagination and deep respect for craft,” says Ivan Wilson-Bell, Group CEO and Managing Director of Stranger & Stranger. “Every label is a distinct piece of art with its own spirit and narrative.”
Seeing those narratives occupy museum walls rather than bottle shelves feels like a natural evolution.
The Art of Modern Blending
Founded in 2000 by American John Glaser—formerly a marketing director at Johnnie Walker—Compass Box has been instrumental in reshaping perceptions of blended whisky. Glaser’s revelation came during a visit to Scotland, tasting Talisker straight from the cask. The moment changed his course entirely.
“I realized blending was about creativity,” Glaser has said. “It was about creating something no single distillery could make on its own.”
That belief led him to challenge the hierarchy that placed single malts above blends. Instead, Compass Box began sourcing exceptional single malt and single grain whiskies from distilleries across Scotland, marrying them with precision and intent.
Expressions like Hedonism—famously adorned with a female figure when it launched, defying category norms—along with The Peat Monster, The Spice Tree, and Flaming Heart, became proof that blending could be both artisanal and avant-garde.
 |
 |
 |
Beyond the Exhibition
The exhibition also highlights Compass Box’s partnership with Bonhams, which offered eight auction lots to benefit The Wolfsonian–FIU. Among them was Confluence, a one-off blend by D’Orazio combining Scotch and Swedish whiskies in tribute to her heritage, presented in a bottle featuring artwork by landscape artist Mary West.
That philanthropic gesture underscores the exhibition’s deeper alignment with The Wolfsonian’s mission: exploring the persuasive power of art and design in shaping culture.
Founded by collector and design scholar Mitchell Wolfson Jr., the museum has long examined how objects communicate ideas—making it an apt home for a whisky house that has always believed its bottles speak as loudly as their contents.
A Serious Whisky, With a Light Hand
Compass Box has never been afraid of wit. From labels depicting Glasgow’s Wellington statue crowned with a traffic cone to its genre-defying releases, the brand balances the seriousness of craft with a playful, intellectual edge.
“We have a Picasso quote on our wall,” Glaser once noted. “‘I begin with an idea, and then it becomes something else.’ That sums up our process.”
In Miami Beach, that process has become something else entirely—a museum-worthy celebration of imagination, where whisky, design, and storytelling converge.
