Swoon Glows at a Silver Art Gala at the World Trade Center

 Nikita Ivaniuta, Asif Hoque, Tamar Rubinstein, Asia Stewart, Russell Craig, Leah Ying Lin, Monica Srivastava, Aristotle Forrester, Kingston, Jaiquan K. Fayson. Photo by BFA for Silver Art Gala
 

By JAN GARDEN CASTRO November 28th, 2025

Swoon, the 2025 Silver Art Gala Honoree, was radiant in a dress that floated as she danced her way through the evening. Four hundred of New York’s glitziest, ritziest artists, arts professionals, and patrons mingled on November 19 on the 40th floor of 7 World Trade Center; they dined and danced ‘til midnight as the city’s skyline, including the Empire State Building, gleamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Since Larry Silverstein helped to found Silver Art, a few generations of chosen artists have been given free studio spaces, supplies, and the freedom to create whatever they can dream up for a year or, in special cases, more. For more information, Google Artists-in-Residence, Silver Art Projects.

 View from WTC

Swoon told me, “I love social projects that reach deep into a social need, but I also create projects that reach into my imagination, too. I love to let those co-exist. Here, I’m going to build out a handmade, fantastical, fairy tale film. I hope it will help people be able to get in touch with themselves. It’s a different type of project than, say, “The Sanctuary,” in North Braddock, Pennsylvania—it’s housing for families coming out of incarceration. There’s a safe house nearby for people coming out of addiction. That’s one of those things where, over a period of many years, we’ve used art to build a community around something. Here, I’m creating the height of fantasy and making a film called “Queen Hattie and the Heartstone.” It has a three-year arc that will have an interactive soundstage and ongoing performances.” (Google Swoon’s projects and a “Fearless” Vimeo film.

Jamel Robinson and Swoon at Silver Art Gala

Swoon was hanging out with Jamel Robinson and telling me about his art made with boxing gloves, “He did something at Pioneer Works last week. A “New York Times” article just came out about it. He’s my neighbor in the residency program. It’s a really cool community that’s getting built here. Jamel told me, “I heard the Lord calling me to paint only in blue. The boxing gloves are inspired by a Japanese artist’s documentary “Cutie and the Boxer.” The materials in my assemblage are associated with the grief surrounding the Black experience and the overuse of the Black body to generate wealth.”

During drinks and socializing, it was lovely to meet many, including Corinne Erni, Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Parrish Art Museum and Danielle Piendak, Director of Development at the Brooklyn Museum.

A beautiful art collector named Kate Lee introduced me to artist Leah Ying Lin, who showed me her fantastic metal-coated ceramic and mixed media sculptures—one, “Nomadic Wind,” has in its center a living, rare plant called Angel Wings. Leah has an international background in engineering, light, ceramics, and architecture. Her sculpture contains magical interstellar stories. Leah told me, “I love the idea of a living sculpture. This one changes at different times of day and night.”  Kate Lee and her partner Clovis Lima, Junior are an international couple originally from Manila and Brazil respectively; they met working for a tech giant, and Lee is starting a foundation to advance artists’ careers.

Jamel Robinson

Nomadic Wind, art by Leah Ying Lin

Artist Leah Ying Lin with guests Kate Lee and Clovis Lima, Junior

 

Tamar Rubinstein

Marcus Manganni, one art star of the evening, had just sold Revolver, an architectural-grade cast acrylic arch sculpture, which brilliantly changed colors as it reflected and refracted the scenes inside and outside the wall-sized glass windows. “It’s the first piece I’ve made to record the Newtonian light changes in my studio,” he reported. “I always love looking at The Brooklyn Bridge through the piece.” His work sold to Noah Kaplan, a newer collector in Detroit and also a creative who does sound sculptures for events.

Marcus, in turn, introduced me to Tamar Rubinstein, an Israeli artist who was studying and working in London when she was tapped for Silver Art. One painting was called “Summer to Autumn” and the other was too new to have a title.

During dinner, I met Aristotle Forrester, a charismatic artist who makes his own oil paints. He switched into art after being a scientist at Harvard because he felt that his notable lab research  would not land him a top position due to his skin color. Aristotle has Scottish, Trinidadian, and other ancestries. His painting “Through Their Spirits I Remember Shango,”  2023, is composed from hand-ground pigment, ash, and gold, and is a meditation on memory and transformation within the African diaspora. I was inspired to hear how well his art sells as a patron pulled him away to introduce him to friends.

Art by Swoon
 

Marcus Manganni with Revolver
 

Dr. Gregory Alan Thornbury, dressed to impress in stripes, a bow tie, and Anne & Valentin glasses, directs Silver Art. He somehow socialized with Everybody!

Larry Silverstein, founder of Silverstein Properties, looked back on the origins of the Silver Art Projects as he told the glamorous assembled party-goers that he began investing in and collecting contemporary art when he needed to fill a big hole in a wall at one of his World Trade Center towers, so he bought a giant Al Held art work. Then a Lichtenstein. Fast forward: “We decided to set aside a floor for artists in the space for a year. Art has an impact that’s incredible. Your being here tonight has made a difference in their lives.” Architecture has built this city, and, for one night, its denizens saluted the ways that art makes city living more human.

Thanks to Silver Art and to Eric Gewirtz at Rubenstein for facilitating this story.