Art in General Production Notes

RoseLee Goldberg, Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, and Anne Barlow

Last night, Art in General‘s lovely annual spring benefit was a pretty low-key affair, aptly held in the Stephan Weiss Studio in Greenwich Village, the event space of Donna Karen‘s chilled-out Urban Zen Center — where one snooping guest revealed he had even stumbled upon a meditation pond secreted away upstairs. The party’s mellow vibe was in keeping with the down-to-earth origins of the nonprofit art organization, founded in 1981 by Martin Weinstein and Teresa Liszka, when those two artists finagled a space in Weinstein’s father’s General Tools building, where they planned to show their work and the work of their friends, and where Art in General is still housed.

Peter Eleey, Melinda Wang and Andria Hickey

Sadly, the subdued nature of the evening’s festivities was also in part due to the shocking tragedy that struck the organization last week, when one of Art in General’s international artists in residence, Ioana Nemes, a rising star of Romanian contemporary art suddenly passed away, having suffered a cardiac arrest at the age of only 32. After executive director Anne J. Barlow asked guests to lift their glasses in memory of Nemes, she introduced the co-chairs of the gala — artist duo Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla.

Allora & Calzadilla‘s career has skyrocketed of late, following their blockbuster performance in MoMA‘s atrium, “Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on ‘Ode to Joy’ for a Prepared Piano,” and the announcement that the couple would serve as the artist representatives of the United States at this year’s Venice Biennale. What diners at last night’s event — including gallery owners Janice Guy, Sean Kelly, and Penny Pilkington, as well as artists Ohad Meromi, David Remfry, Emily Roysdon, JD Sampson, and Spencer Sweeney — might not have known about the pair, however, was their longstanding relationship with the nonprofit. After the duo met in Florence, and moved together to New York for museum fellowships, Calzadilla helped pay the bills by working for Art in General.

JD Sampson and Emily Roysdon

After dinner — a savory chilled soup followed by risotto or beef, as well as a near-deadly tequila-based mojito cocktail — people were slow to move onto the dance floor, notwithstanding the encouragement of the night’s MCs. (This was quite the letdown, as I was hoping not only to unleash my own overbite-heavy dance moves, but also to see the fabulous leading ladies of the art nonprofit world in attendance — Performa‘s RoseLee Goldberg and Creative Time‘s Anne Pasternak — cut a rug.)

The benefit did, however, boast one of the most ingenious fund-raising efforts I’ve ever seen, a “DoubleBlind” silent auction, “inspired by the open-ended possibility of the unknown, hidden, and covert.” The organization asked ten various prominent culturati — from Kelley to Sweeney — to each commission an artist in whom they’re interested (in the case of Kelley and Sweeney, Shirin Neshat and Andrew W.K. respectively). The selected artists then each shot one roll of film, of the format of their choosing, and guests bid (using an assigned number) on these undeveloped mystery rolls, ultimately earning more than $35,000 for Art in General’s exhibitions, residencies, commissions, and educational programs. How thrilling!

See Emma Allen’s original post here