A: Is for Art of the Party!

One of the hottest tickets in town is to the sold out Whitney Art Party, Tuesday June 17th. Whitney's Contemporaries Art Party is an annual fete featuring a VIP guest list of art, fashion, & celebrity circles as well as an silent art auction. Both the proceeds from the auction and the tickets (priced $250 a pop with a long waiting list) go to benefit the Whitney’s prestigious Independent Study Program. (Which I like to think of as day camp for really talented artists, but I know it’s much more intense than that.) The dress code is a must and many a shapely model and actress will done the body hugging 80s-style dresses by Herve Leger. (The label, as you fashion insiders know, is owned by BCBG, the event’s co-host. See the connection now?) The artist E. V. Day makes fireworks from fashion, such as a replica of Marilyn Monroe’s white halter dress. She has made bomber jets out of G-strings. Now how cool is that? Her latest project, is a take on a dress perhaps even more fraught with sexual metaphor, a bandage dress from the house of Hervé Léger. The reason is Ms. Day had been asked by the Whitney Museum to contribute a work based on the dress for the annual Art Party. Cocktails and dancing commence from 9 pm–1 am at The Skylight located at 275 Hudson Street (at Spring Street). The Dress code is Art Chic which means all of the top designers will be represented. This party insures the youthful energy of the Whitney flourishes. Committed to exploring new approaches to education multidimensional programs abound. Highly regarded art advisor Candace Worth of Worth Art Advisory picks are
the FedEx box by Walead Beshty. "It's just a wonderful piece and it's small enough to put anywhere" she said. (The current bid on the work, constructed from FedEx supplies and safety glass and related to Beshty's lauded installation in this year's Whitney Biennial, is $2,000.) "Very often his pieces are offered in groups—it's not as easy to get a single work." Worth also pointed out Melanie Schiff's dimly-lit color photograph of herself on a beer-bottle surrounded couch, Self-Portrait After John's Party (bidding is currently at $600). "She's a great up-and-coming photographer from Chicago. That's also a really good price," said Worth. Also catching Worth's eye are Mika Rottenberg's drawing P24 (currently at $400), Aaron Morse's watercolor Berlin (Kennedy) (currently at $1,000) and Matthew Brannon's gracefully composed letterpress print, Unfinished Business (currently at $2600). I have enclosed my takes as well as a Cecily Brown piece that I think will fetch the highest bids. You don't have to have a ticket to the party to bid. Log onto www.whitneyartparty.org/auction. I would suggest going now for as I was writing this the Cecily Brown piece was bought and is now longer there. It was a good thing I snagged the picture. Keeping art alive is a ggod thing and that is a F.A.C.T.