Whitehot Magazine
"The Best Art In The World"
Collectors Amy and John Phelan
ArtCrush 2014 and the Opening of the Aspen Art Museum
By PAUL LASTER, AUG, 2014
The Aspen Art Museum kicked off a four-day celebration for it’s new, 33,000-square-foot Shigeru Ban-designed building, which opens to the public on August 9, with its tenth annual ArtCrush Summer Benefit.
Museum directors, curators, collectors and artists got the party started on Wednesday night at WineCrush, the annual reception and dinner for art and wine lovers at the Aspen home of art patrons Amy and John Phelan.
Thursday evening saw preview receptions for the benefit auction lots at Baldwin Gallery and Casterline|Goodman Gallery in Aspen, followed by a dinner for AAM board members and lenders to the inaugural exhibitions at the new Aspen Art Museum.
The ArtCrush reception, dinner and auction—plus the presentation of the Aspen Art Award to Ernesto Neto—took place on Friday night on the grounds of the old museum building and inside a massive, decorated tent in Rio Grande Park, before revelers headed to AfterpartyCrush at Belly Up Aspen, where The Dolls performed.
A ribbon cutting for the new Aspen Art Museum took place on Saturday afternoon, with Shigeru Ban and Colorado governor John Hickenlooper joining AAM director Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson and board members for the ceremony.
Cai Guo-Qiang’s firework performance Black Lightning, which lit the skies above Aspen Mountain with black smoke, commemorated the event. Later in the day the galleries were opened to members and Shigeru Ban gave a walk-through a special exhibition of his Humanitarian Architecture.
Visitors viewed additional new exhibitions by Tomma Abts, Rosemarie Trockel, Jim Hodges, Cai Guo-Qiang and a show that paired works by David Hammons with Yves Klein, and then proceeded to the roof deck to enjoy refreshments while soaking up the amazing views of Aspen and its all-encompassing nature.
Aspen Art Museum CEO and director Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson
Guggenheim Museum curator Alexandra Munroe and artist Cai Guo-Qiang
Pritzker-prize winning architect Shigeru Ban
Collectors Bob and Nancy Magoon
Collector Toby Devan Lewis and Orange County Museum of Art curator Dan Cameron
Baldwin Gallery owner Richard Edwards
Collectors Gayle and Paul Stoffel
Aspen Art Museum curator Courtney Finn
Artist Ernesto Neto on one of his interactive sculptures
Model and actress Barbi Benton
Artist Ryan Gander and Lisson Gallery New York director Alex Logsdail
Dolce & Gabbana president Federica Marchionni, artist Marc Dennis and Dolce & Gabbana Aspen manager Annie Bal
Collectors Don and Mera Rubell
Artist Mickalene Thomas and Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Foundation president Joel Wachs
Artist Randy Polumbo
ArtCrush chairperson Amy Phelan and artist Fred Tomaselli
Carnegie Museum of Art's Heinz Architectural Center curator Raymund Ryan
Collectors Anna Hansen and Lance Armstrong
Sotheby's Vice Chairman Americas Anthony Grant
303 Gallery associate director Erika Weiss and University of Chicago curator Jacob Proctor
Artist Tony Feher
Financial adviser Bill Miller, artist Marilyn Minter , W Magazine editor Stefano Tonchi, and gallerist David Maupin
Collector Eugenio López
Collectors Rebecca and Marty Eisenberg
Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art director Janis Cecil Gardner
Collectors Adam Fields and Jenny Halegua
Artist and White Columns director Matthew Higgs and Frieze Magazine New York editor Dan Fox
Artist Richard Phillips and musician Liza Thorn
Expo Chicago director Tony and Body Balancing Pilates owner Sondra Karman
Paul Laster is a writer, editor, curator, artist and lecturer. He’s a contributing editor at ArtAsiaPacific and Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art and writer for Time Out New York, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, Galerie Magazine, Sculpture, Art & Object, Cultured, Architectural Digest, Garage, Surface, Ocula, Observer, ArtPulse, Conceptual Fine Arts and Glasstire. He was the founding editor of Artkrush, started The Daily Beast’s art section, and was art editor of Russell Simmons’ OneWorld Magazine, as well as a curator at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, now MoMA PS1.
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