Items of Note

A few items to share on this damp Monday:

One

You have one more day (today!) to get your Momenta Benefit tickets at the discounted price of only $200 (price goes up to $250 tomorrow).

Now I know I urge you to support this brilliant non-profit space every year (it is my personal favorite, and their benefit is usually so much fun), but this year more than ever I'd ask you consider this for two very good reasons:

1. Momenta is moving! From that rather out of the way place down by South 4th street to right across from the Morgan Street entrance on the L Train. Bambino and I visited their impressive new space last weekend, and we're thrilled for the Momenta gang.

Momenta's NEW LOCATION

56 Bogart Street
Bushwick, Brooklyn

The benefit, however, will be generously hosted by Loretta Howard Gallery

Auction & Raffle at Loretta Howard Gallery
525 West 26th St, New York, NY
Wednesday, June 1st
Doors open at noon

Cocktails: 6-8pm

Raffle: 8-10pm hosted by Michael Waugh and Christopher Gaillard
Silent Auction: 6-10pm

2. The second reason to get your ticket is this year the artists who have so kindly donated artwork have truly outdone themselves. Nearly every work is a good-sized painting or framed drawing or sculpture. The generosity of these artists should hopefully encourage you to respond in kind. Buy a ticket...or two! and take home some great art at the bargain of the century.


Two

You have even less time, but there is still some, to support another of our favorite art world non-profits: Visual AIDS. Tonight's benefit, appropriately called "VAVA VOOM," is truly one of the more fabulous and outrageously fun events of the year. Tickets for an evening of cabaret, cocktails, and some really terrific deals are only $275.00. Bambino and I will be there...and hope you'll join us.

VAVA Voom

Monday May 16, 6:00 – 9:00 PM

The Park, 118 Tenth Avenue, NYC

The 6th Annual Visual AIDS Vanguard Awards honoring:
Geoffrey Hendricks presented by William Pope.L
Brent Sikkema presented by Hilton Als
Richard Renaldi presented by Lesley A. Martin

Join co-chairs Mixed Greens, P·P·O·W, Kara Walker, and Pavel Zoubok for cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and a night of cabaret. Cocktails provided by Pernod Ricard.

VAVA Voom Cabaret hosted by John Fugelsang and starring:
Justin Vivian Bond accompanied by Nath Ann Carrera
Phoebe Legere

Music by DJ Senti-mental.

Plus "Fair and Honest Appraisals of Your Appearance" by The Bumbys.

RAFFLE · $100 ea.

• Oliver Peoples sunglasses · 3 men and 3 women frames (valued at $2,400)
• New York Health & Racquet Club · 1 year membership (valued at $1,590)
• HUGO BOSS $1,000 shopping spree
• commissioned portrait by Richard Haines · one 11x14 mixed media portrait (valued at $500)

TICKETS · Purchase online here or contact Visual AIDS 212-627-9855

Three

Get a sneak peek at what the Chadwicks are up to at Cabinet:

Please join Jimbo Blachly and Lytle Shaw, editors of the Chadwick Family Papers, for the land launch of the Nelson Manobar. The Chadwicks’ recently restored occupiable model of Admiral Nelson’s HMS Victory has never before been exhibited publicly in the United States.

The event features:

Nautical electronica

Drinks from the hull of the Manobar

Rare recordings of Chadwick Dalton’s legendary sea chanty collection



This one-night event at Cabinet presents a VIP preview of the Nelson Manobar before its installation as the centerpiece of "Furling the Spanker: Masterworks from the Chadwicks’ Nautical Collections," which opens June 16 at Winkleman Gallery.

Beer for this event has been lovingly provided by Brooklyn Brewery.




Date: Thursday, 19 May 2011, 7–9 pm
Location: Cabinet, 300 Nevins Street, Brooklyn (map and directions here)
FREE. No RSVP necessary

Four

This next item might be a bit easier for you if you happen to know people who lived in the Soviet Union before it collapsed. Having spent most of my life sure that the Cold War would end in a fireball, I find rather unexpectedly that today I happen to know quite a few. If you do you as well, please consider helping our artist Yevgeniy Fiks with his up coming project to be exhibited at the Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art:

Portrait of 19 Million

Call for Participation
Portrait of 19 million is an open participatory project organized by artist Yevgeniy Fiks. This project will be presented in the Viktor Misiano-curated exhibition, The Impossible Communities, at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMoMA) in Fall 2011.

According to official Soviet statistics, 19 million people were members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the Perestroika period. These were people who joined the Party at different times and under different circumstances. CPSU was not homogeneous with regards to its social make up nor ideology. Who were the members of the Party then? What united them and what could alienate them from each other? Who are they now? Portrait of 19 million focuses on the fates of concrete individuals, using purely artistic and sociological tools in an attempt to understand the Soviet and post-Soviet subjectivity.

Everyone is welcome to participate in this project regardless of profession. Participants are invited to submit a portrait (or self-portrait) of any person who was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the last years of the USSR. Age, occupation, social status of the portrait's subject doesn't matter. The portrait can be done in any style and technique: amateur photography, studio portraits, mobilography, video, painting, drawing, collage, etc.

Conditions of Participation
Prospective participants should contact Yevgeniy Fiks by July 15, 2011 at: portraitof19million@gmail.com. Yevgeniy Fiks will discuss with each participant the project details.

After confirming participation in the project, each participant will receive a questionnaire to be filled with biographical data of the portrait's subject. Both the questionnaire and portrait will be exhibited in the form of an installation at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art in Fall 2011.

The names of all project participants will be listed in MMoMA materials. Participants will retain copyrights of their work. All materials will be returned to their corresponding owners.