Fine art dining at the Hammer
The event: The Hammer Museum celebrated two new exhibitions, “Mark Bradford: Scorched Earth” and “Perfect Likeness: Photography and Composition,” with a jampacked weekend of events in late June. Festivities began with a summer supper for artists, collectors and other VIPs on June 26 and continued on June 27 with curatorguided walk-throughs and receptions for museum supporters, patrons, directors and members, culminating in a shindig for 1,600, complete with a DJ set. The scene: At the supper, guests seated themselves at long tables in the Hammer’s courtyard, and museum Director Ann Philbin addressed the crowd, thanking donors and proposing toasts to the artists. Then everyone dined family-style on barbecued brisket, lemon-marinated chicken, penne pasta and vegetables. The Bradford exhibition: In “Scorched Earth,” his first solo museum exhibition in Los Angeles, Bradford dug through layers of previous artwork painted onto a museum wall to create a map of the United States, with each state showing numbers to represent people living with AIDS. Also featured in the exhibition, which is scheduled to close Sept. 27, are a multimedia installation of an off-color comedy routine and 12 new works influenced by the aftermath of the 1992 L.A. riots sparked by the verdict in the Rodney G. King police beating case. The photography: “Perfect Likeness: Photography and Composition” examines contemporary photography through 53 works by 24 artists who have consciously arranged images with forethought and attention to detail, more like a painter might compose an image than like a street photographer who would capture spontaneity, according to adjunct curator Russell Ferguson. The show is scheduled through Sept. 13.
The crowd: Bradford and his partner, Allan DiCastro, joined more artists, many whose work appear in the photography show. They included Catherine Opie, Thomas Demand, Lucas Blalock, Roe Ethridge, Elad Lassry, Sharon Lockhart, Charles Gaines, Kenny Scharf, Edgar Arceneaux, Toba Khedoori, A.L. Steiner, Sam Durant, Ana Prvacki, Mary Reid Kelley, Patrick Kelley, Francesca Gabbiani and Eddie Ruscha (son of artist Ed Ruscha). Museum supporters included Eileen Harris Norton, Rosette Delug, Joy Monkarsh, Linda Janger, Ari Emanuel, Alan Hergott, Curt Shepard, Christopher Farr, MOCA Director Philippe Vergne, Getty Director Timothy Potts. Also attending was Marc Porter, chairman of Christie’s Americas, which sponsored the supper.