For this week’s Friday Fête, Whitewall takes you through some of this week’s events, including celebrations with amfAR, The Peninsula Hotels, Gucci, and more.
On Monday, the 5th annual amfAR Gala Hong Kong took place at the newly opened Rosewood Hong Kong. The event—attended by special guests like Alexander Skarsgård, Pharrell Williams, Heidi Klum, Kyle MacLachlan, and Michelle Yeoh—honored renowned entrepreneur Adrian Cheng for his exceptional contributions to the global fight against HIV/AIDS. This year’s Honorary Chair was Pansy Ho, a leading supporter of the gala since its inception in 2015 and an influential figure in the city. Presented by APM Monaco and Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, the gala was also possible thanks to its sponsors: American Express, Perrier-Jouët, and Absolut Elyx. That night, the gala raised over $2.75 million for amfAR’s life-saving AIDS research programs.
On Tuesday at Mr Chow in Beverly Hills, Art of Choice and Michael Chow held an intimate installation of their dinner series—“Last Tuesday LA.” Hosted by the organization’s founder, Olivia Davis, curator Lilly Foulard, and Mr Chow, the soiree welcomed 50 young creatives and professionals to a night of cocktails, cuisine, and art talk. After dinner, special attendees—including David Alagem, Elliot Grainge, Danielle Lauder, Jeff Magid, Brian Ludlow, Sophia Penske, Kevin Marciano, William Hess, and Sam Pritzker—enjoyed an intimate conversation with Chow, moderated by Marissa Montgomery, about his life as an artist and contemporary art collector.
That night in Hong Hong, The Peninsula Hotels (the official hotel partner of Art Basel in Hong Kong) welcomed the start of its multi-year global multi-year campaign entitled “Art in Resonance.” Created to provide new and inspiring experiences for visitors, the program is commissioning immersive installations by mid-career contemporary artists. Today through June 21, guests can expect works by Janet Echelman, Iván Navarro, Timothy Paul Myers, and the Chinese architecture collective MINAX. There to celebrate were the campaign’s co-curators Bettina Prentice and Isolde Brielmaier, and guests like Pom Klementieff, Bianca Brandolini, Coco Brandolini, and Eugenie Niarchos.
In Manhattan at the Gucci Wooster Bookstore, guests like Bethann Hardison, Michaela Angela Davis, Steve Friedman, and Ari Marcopoulos gathered with Dapper Dan for a signing of his book Dapper Dan’s Harlem. The limited-edition publication documents Marcopoulos’ journey through the borough, which is also Dapper Dan’s home and the location of his eponymous atelier (which Gucci helped to reopen in December 2017). Twenty-five percent of the sales from the book are in support of “A Ballad for Harlem”—a new exhibition opening on April 25 at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
In Boston, Max Mara hosted a soiree to celebrate the opening of “Huma Bhabha: The Live” at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA). For Bhabha’s largest exhibition to date, over 500 guests joined in welcoming its survey—full of sculpture, drawing, and photography—to the museum, including Ellen Matilda Poss Director of the ICA, Jill Medvedow; Barbara Lee Chief Curator of the ICA, Eva Respini; and ICA supporters like Karen and Brian Conway, Steve Corkin, Dan Maddalena, Fotene Demoulas, Tom Coté, and Charlotte Wagner.
And in Brooklyn at Pioneer Works, art and fashion patrons alike joined Lacoste in welcoming its newest line dedicated to, and inspired by, Keith Haring. There for the launch was a special reinstallation of a mural by Haring, once done for the Boys Club in the Lower East Side in 1987, which hasn’t been seen in decades. Visitors like G-Eazy, Quincy, A$AP Nast, LaKeith Stanfield, Ashton Sanders, and Atandwa Kani were there to show support of the new collection, while enjoying music by DJ Va$htie and a dance performance by Salif Lasource and the NYC Hit Squad.
And last night at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Dior presented a new line of costumes. Designed in collaboration with the theater’s Director of Ballet, Eleonora Abbagnato, the costumes will appear nightly. Each night through April 2, one of the three ballets created will be presented to pay homage to the composer and musician Philip Glass. For the project, Abbagnato will dance alongside Friedemann Vogel in a piece by the French choreographer Sébastien Bertaud.
