MoMA PS1’s annual gala, staged each year in the museum’s airy courtyard, always defies expectations. Last year, the scene-stealers on the red carpet weren’t celebrities but two stunning parrots brought in by art collective Shanzhai Lyric. This year, the step-and-repeat wasn’t a carpet at all, but part of Eric N. Mack’s sumptuous fabric installation, which floated overhead like a gently undulating sky, adding color, drama and, for some, a ready-made hiding spot.
More than 400 guests assembled under the keen gazes of co-chairs Sarah Arison and Thomas Wilhelm, with Samir Goel and Julie Markham, Eleanor Heyman Propp, Marguerite Steed Hoffman, Iman, Komal Shah and Gaurav Garg, Jamie and Robert Soros, Jessica Soy, and Mahfuz and Chloe Sultan. Those on the long list of boldface names were there to toast Glenstone co-founder and director Emily Wei Rales and artist Kara Walker—and to generously replenish MoMA PS1’s Annual Exhibition Fund.
As ever, the night drew a high-gloss crowd of art-world power players. Among those spotted sipping cocktails and working the room were philanthropic icon Agnes Gund, design duo Paul Arnhold and Wes Gordon, culture catalyst Darren Walker, MoMA mainstay Glenn D. Lowry, P.S.1 founding force Alanna Heiss, Pritzker art scion Abby Pucker, collectors Jill and Peter Kraus, art advisor Michi Jigarjian, White Cube senior director Courtney Willis Blair, curator and patron Dana Farouki, dealer Jane Hait, philanthropist Allison Berg, Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak, curator and writer Legacy Russel and patron Victoria Rogers.
California Baby founder Jessica Soy and fashion heiress Paola Fendi mingled with a Who’s Who of artists that included Korakrit Arunanondchai, Matthew Barney, Cecily Brown, Ian Cheng, Whitney Claflin, Raul De Nieves, Camille Henrot, Joan Jonas, DonChristian Jones, Ayoung Kim, Deana Lawson, Glenn Ligon, Okwui Okpokwasili, Tschabalala Self, Sable Elyse Smith, Taryn Simon and Kiki Smith (among many others). That is, until MoMA PS1 director Connie Butler gave the gentle call to dinner. The evening’s feast, designed by acclaimed chef and artist Omar Tate, was a garden-to-table reverie made of roots, herbs, flowers and whatever else he deemed seasonally appropriate.
“We know that our work, both individually and collectively, as a fragile but essential ecosystem, is more important than ever,” Butler told the room before passing the mic to LaToya Ruby Frazier, who praised Wei Rales for her “generosity, sincerity, and willingness to act.” Then board chair Robert Soros kept it brief, touching on PS1’s history and future before introducing artist and musician Jason Moran, who in turn welcomed Walker.
But when the clock struck ten, the gala loosened its collar. Guests stood, stretched and made their way upstairs for the much-anticipated afterparty—dreamily designed by DonChristian Jones and kept electric by live sets from Demi Vee and The Band, plus DJ turns from Ms. Carrie Stacks and Persona La Ave.
