Highlights From The Brooklyn Artists Ball

Installation view. All images by Christian Grattan

There’s rarely much to say about museum fundraisers besides gossiping about who attended. Artist commissions are often an after thought, and the definition of a good party, is often purely defined by the networking than can be done at these things. Every year then, it’s a relief to attend The Brooklyn Artist’s Ball, which offers more than just an opportunity schmooze. As is its tradition, 16 Brooklyn-based artists —including Ghost of a Dream, Rico Gatson, Carrie Schneider, Nina Katchadourian, and Olek —transformed 40 foot tables into master works of art on the third floor of the museum. Katchadourian’s table may have attracted the most attention through out the evening, as she provided dollar store sourced kits for patrons to dress up as portrait sitters from the museum’s portrait collection. Adam Parker Smith’s table that replaced floral decorations with styrofoam vaginas easily rivaled though, as did Olek’s knitted table cloth, centerpieces and life-sized skeleton. A small video near the end of the dinner honored this year were development visionaries and art patrons Jane and David Walentas. Celebrated were artists Jenny Holzer, Kehinde Wiley, and Ai Weiwei. The tastiest part of the party, though, took place on the ground floor, thanks to a candy installation by The Floor Shop. May not benefit party be complete without a celebration of sugar. The slide show below. All images Christian Grattan.