Performa has announced that its benefit party “Relâche” will now happen on Nov. 29. The party, an “an evening of performances and perpetual movement” that reimagines the 1924 Surrealist ballet Relâche by Francis Picabia and Erik Satie, was originally set to take place on Nov. 1 but had to be rescheduled due to Hurricane Sandy. Read More
Artist Jack Pierson will be honored at this year’s Artwalk New York, a benefit art auction on Wednesday night, Nov. 7, co-chaired by Richard Gere, Carey Lowell and Coco Rocha that goes to support the Coalition for the Homeless. Photographer and New York City nightlife fixture Patrick McMullan will be the philanthropic honoree, and Alec Baldwin the honorary chair. Read More
Performa announced today that its hotly anticipated benefit event, “Relâche,” which was scheduled to occur tomorrow, Nov. 1, has been canceled because of the hurricane. The party, which will be rescheduled, is themed around the 1924 ballet Relâche (“Rest,” in French, interestingly enough) by Francis Picabia and Erik Satie. Read More
SculptureCenter in Long Island City has started a $5 million campaign toward a major building expansion. The news comes from Mary Ceruti, SculptureCenter’s executive director, who made the announcement at the organization’s benefit gala last night at the Edison Ballroom. The center plans to break ground next year on a one-story addition in the front of the building’s courtyard that will serve as a new lobby entrance and provide additional exhibition space. The renovations will tentatively be complete in 2014, and SculptureCenter will, for the most part, remain open during construction. Read More
“RAIN OR SHINE!!” read the first line of the invitation for the Watermill Center’s summer benefit, which felt prophetic Saturday, when “shine” never came into the equation. The foreboding weather was not the ideal setting to view a lot of the outdoor performances, tucked away in the woods surrounding the center, but it did make the 60-foot inflatable butt plug by Paul McCarthy look especially menacing. Read More
The Big Bang, Watermill Center’s 19th annual summer benefit, raised over $1.5 million in support of its artist residency and educational programs. About $800,000 was raised in ticket sales and about $700,000 at the silent auction. Read More
On Thursday last week, the day the Supreme Court voted to uphold most of the Obama healthcare law, a group of artists and writers packed into the side room at Paula Cooper Gallery’s main space in Chelsea for a Barack Obama benefit, and listened to Manhattan’s borough president, Scott Stringer, give a speech.
“I want to say, ‘Thank God,’” he said. “I can’t believe we finally got something right.” Read More
On June 28, Paula Cooper Gallery will host the event Artists & Writers for Obama. Tickets range from $1,000 to $2,500, which will get you into a private pre-reception, and there are a limited number of $100 tickets available. Jonathan Safran Foer and Jonathan Franzen are special guests. My Brightest Diamond, who recently performed at the Kitchen benefit this spring, will provide the music. Here are a few of the host committee members, basically the cream of the crop in the categories of “artists” and “writers”: Read More
“It’s Somali pirates,” artist Todd James told Gallerist about his piece, a brightly colored work of gouache and graphite on paper depicting two guys looking tough in headscarves as they smoked cigarettes. “I think they’re interesting. They’re kind of like David and Goliath. How do a few guys hold up a ship the size of a small town? It’s not cool to do, but it’s also impressive.”
Mr. James, a street artist known for being the co-creator of the “Street Market” exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2001, had donated work for the “Block Party 2012,” a benefit and silent auction thrown by the Horticultural Society of New York last night on the rooftop of the Central Park Arsenal. Read More
Last week’s Mad. Sq. Art benefit honoring Martin Friedman, a long-time director at the Walker Art Center and consultant on the public art projects in Madison Square Park, attracted about 300 guests, with more than a few art icons—John Baldessari, Chuck Close, Christo, David Hockney, Frank Stella and Mark di Suvero among them. Philip Glass performed Metamorphosis No. 2. Mr. Baldessari was…really tall. Read More
