Last Thursday night, in celebration of LA’s Art Month, Calvin Klein, Art Los Angeles Contemporary (ALAC) and the Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND) hosted an extravagant gala in West Hollywood — thus proving that you don’t always need Bruce Weber’s scantily denim clad tweens to get people excited, a previously debatable observation. Read the breakdown, plus a full gallery of attendants (including Penelope Cruz, Milla Jovovich, Molly Sims, Ryan Phillipe and Ginnifer Goodwin) after the Jump…
LAND, being a public art initiative interested in site-specific installation, proved to be a great fit for the event. Founded in 2009, the fledgling non-profit organization’s founders, Shamim Momin (formerly Contemporary Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art) and Christine Kim (Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Modern Art) brought a lot of weight to an already substantial event. I have nothing but admiration for people who can so seamlessly bring the arts and fashion worlds together which, though ostensibly akin, can also be unwieldy to unite and veer toward a more Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in What Ever Happened To Baby Jane motif if your not careful. ALAC is an esteemed contemporary international art fair working collectively to showcase and promote the arts in our fine city to local and international visitors alike.
Inspired by the process and materials of the brand’s creative directors, Francisco Costa and Italo Zucchelli, Jean Shin’s installation, titled “Pattern Folds” used the fabrics and patterns in the Calvin Klein runway 2010 collection and suspended amorphous swaths of cloth, riddled with cuts outs and folds, at the opening of the space. There was also a video installation by Jennifer West in which she explored the ideas of gender, the body and mythology on video consuls in 16mm, 35mm, and 70mm film.
The installations were austerely perused by the guests but shortly thereafter gave way to the rooftop reception that was nearly bursting at the seams with Calvin Klein clad notables such as Ryan Phillipe, Penelope Cruz, Milla Jovovich, Molly Sims, Neville Wakefield, Honor Fraser, Rosetta Getty and Ginnifer Goodwin just to name a few, it was enough to give the tabloids a nose bleed. In addition, comparable to the cool delinquent’s table at a high school cafeteria, Terrence Koh, Bijou Phillips, China Chow and Nicky Hilton were also in attendance. Although the event was noticeably sans Marky Mark and his Calvin attired funky bunch, the fete went off without a hitch, an inspiring acknowledgment of LA as one of the world’s exponentially rising heavy hitter’s in the fine arts. ?
