Sylvester Stallone and Galerie Gmurzynska Honored at Versace’s Former Mansion

Cait Munro December 2, 2015 ShareShare This Article

On the evening before Art Basel’s VIP opening, the art world elite gathered at the former Miami Beach mansion of Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace to celebrate Galerie Gmurzynska, whose Germano Celant-curated booth opens today. The crowd also toasted to actor, art collector, and painter Sylvester Stallone, who had a show at the Galerie Contemporaine du Musée de Nice in France, and once called Versace his friend.

“It’s our 50th anniversary, so we’re celebrating that, as well as Sylvester’s work and, of course, the friendship that he had with Versace,” said Galerie Gmurzynska CEO Mathias Rastorfer. “After Rocky, he lived in Miami for a long time, he collected Frances Bacon, even Monets—everything from Impressionism to contemporary, and he and Versace were close friends.”

But Stallone’s art bona fides are not always acknowledged, even by Hollywood enthusiasts.

“He’s actually very shy about it,” admitted Rastorfer.

The evening had no shortage of star power. While Leonardo DiCaprio and Stallone chatted intensely in a corner of the lounge, globetrotting art world duo Eva and Adele made an appearance dressed in candy-colored orange dresses. The event also featured nude Monte Carlo-style showgirls—decked out in gold paint and glitter—performing inside giant hoops above the crowd.

As Miami celebrations are often wont to do, the party had the potential to go late night. However, many attendees had to be at the fair early this morning, where the gallery’s salon-style collaboration with Celant will be on view adjacent to the main entrance, featuring everyone from fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld to artist Robert Indiana.

“To represent 50 years of anything is huge,” Celant said. “It’s kind of like an avalanche—something that you cannot control. It’s a combination of all the possible relationships—from present to past, but also between the artworks themselves.”

See images from the evening below.