It's less than a week away, and I can't believe I haven't hyped it yet:
I'm giving a presentation this Friday in Miami during Art Basel Miami Beach titled, "Relational Aesthetics For The Rich, Or A Brief History Of The Gala As Art."
It's based on this similarly titled blog post, which pulls together a lot of things I've been fascinated by over the years, but which was inspired by MoCA's Annual Gala, which the museum relabeled "a Happening," and which they turned over to Doug Aitken to design as an artwork.
At least that was Jeffrey Deitch's original pitch; the results--and the history and context of museum gala art--turn out to be a little more complex.
Anyway, the talk is part of #rank, a program put together by Bill Powhida and Jen Dalton, which will be held at SEVEN, the shared exhibition and program space in Wynwood organized by a group of awesome New York dealers.
There are so many people to thank, starting with Magda Sawon from Postmasters and artist Michelle Vaughan, who are the honorary co-chairs of the presentation. And there are the gift bag sponsors, of course, who will be announced soon. I hope.
The gig goes down at 1pm, and it should be available for live streaming online, in case you are too busy making acquisitions at ABMB or something. But then you won't get a gift bag...
