What: Free Arts NYC’s 16th Annual Art Auction with Gucci and Beats by Dre honoring artist Rashid Johnson
Where: New York City Department of Records at 31 Chambers Street New York, which you might recognize from its appearances in long-running television show Law and Order: SVU.
When: Wednesday April 30th
Why: The annual benefit auction support the art education non-profit, which works to provide arts programing to New York City’s underserved youth, working with 1,500 children and families every year. With donated artworks from Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, Alex Katz, Kiki Smith, and Christopher Wool for sale, the evening’s proceeds totaled well over $1 million, including a $410,000 dollar sale for one work by Christopher Wool.
This year’s event honored Johnson (who has an upcoming installation on the High Line—see New York’s 10 Most Beautiful Public Art Shows for Spring), who recently invited the children of Free Arts to spend a day making art at his studio. (The organization recently held a similar event at Pioneer Works in Red Hook with Dustin Yellin—see Dustin Yellin Makes Art With Homeless Kids at Pioneer Works.)
Who: The artsy crowd included Peter Marino, Cecilia Alemani, Massimiliano Gioni, Thelma Golden, Richard Phillips, Bill Powers, Michael Avedon, and Shinique Smith, as well as actresses Brooke Shields and Kelly Rutherford. Hank Willis Thomas and Todd Eberle took shifts running a high-end photo booth, selling prints of party guests printed on large format Polaroids.
The Moment: Rubbing shoulders with the likes of Shields and Wes Anderson favorite Waris Ahluwalia (see Wes Anderson Commissions a Surrealist Theme Park) were several children who are part of the Free Arts NYC, holding court in front of a wall of textured works they had created in Johnson’s signature black soap.
“We want the kids to know, if they want to pursue a career in art, there are people who can actually make a living doing that,” explained Free Arts executive director Liz Hopfan to artnet News.
“It was a magical day, for an incredible cause” Casey Freemont of Art Production Fund told artnet News of her recent trip to the Brant Foundation to make art with Dan Colen and the children of Free Arts NYC. “It was great to see how proud they were to taker home their art and show it to their parents.”
Johnson also got a lot out of his experience: “It was a blast,” he told artnet News. “I learned a lot—nothing like the brutal honesty of children to give you some real perspective!”