The New Museum in downtown New York City is having a busy year. There’s the current Wangechi Mutu exhibition of imaginative and otherworldly mixed media creations, the continued plans for a next-door expansion by architects Rem Koolhaas and Shohei Shigematsu, and the six-decade retrospective of Judy Chicago premiering in October. The Judy Chicago exhibition will be the iconic artist’s first-ever solo New York show. Art patrons celebrated aptly at the New Museum Spring Gala.
On the topic of her forthcoming New Museum solo show, Judy Chicago told Vogue, “Artistic Director Massimiliano Gioni is doing something that nobody else has ever done. He is not only showing the body of my work, but he is also contextualizing it in the many unknown histories my work draws on, going back to the Middle Ages. It’s totally overwhelming.”
Hosted at Cipriani South Street, the New Museum Spring Gala, honored Judy Chicago and art collector Charlotte Feng Ford. The Beaux-Arts maritime venue was a fitting venue for the gala, two downtown Manhattan institutions joining forces for a fabulous fundraiser. The party started with a cocktail hour DJ’d by April Hunt. Guests spilled out onto the veranda overlooking the FDR Drive highway and Staten Island ferry terminal. Exquisite lilac and yellow floral arrangements were organically positioned throughout the party.
The gala’s dress code was “electric sunset,” a challenge for New Yorkers who comfortably wear black on most occasions. Impressively, they rose to the occasion and dressed loud in color, spanning the full gamut of an evening skyscape. Dresses were in shocking coral and fuschia, sunflower yellow, and every variation of citrus fruit. Attendees opted for a maximalist take on attired, with exaggerated fabrics pleated, gathered, buttoned, pinned, and ruched.
A seated dinner in the cavernous ballroom followed the cocktail party, where bright purple tablecloths laid the foundations for yellow and pink floral centerpieces and colorful custom serviettes inspired by Judy Chicago’s Let It All Hang Out painting. Guests included honorees Chicago and Charlotte Feng Ford, model and activist Bethann Hardison, and writer Kevin Kwan. In keeping with the electric sunset dress code, Jamie Singer Soros wore a bright pink frock, while New Museum Deputy Director Isolde Brielmaier dressed in yellow sequins.
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