After seven years of hosting a successful and distinctive Gala Auction and Dinner, bringing unprecedented funds to support the charity’s mission, the Contemporary Art Society is pleased to announce a new fundraising initiative for 2015/16.
The Artist’s Table will be a series of four bespoke artist curated experiences across the year, each hosted by an internationally recognised collector and an artist of their choice. The artists have been invited to participate based on their unique approach and will create a one-off immersive experience for an intimate group of guests that may include installation, performance, interactive elements and dinner or lunch.
Dates and Hosts
- 19 November 2015: Haroon Mirza with Sarah Elson
- 13 January 2016: Alexandre Da Cunha with Anita Zabludowicz
- 10 March 2016: Goshka Macuga with Valeria Napoleone
- 2016, on a date to be confirmed: Isaac Julien with Linda Keyte
The first collaboration taking place is with Haroon Mirza, an artist who has won international acclaim for installations that test the interplay and friction between sound and light waves and electric current. He combines a variety of readymade and time-based material to create audio compositions, which are often realised as performances, site-specific installations and kinetic sculptures.
Following on from Arte Povera and his Latin American predecessors, Alexandre da Cunha examines the position of his Brazilian homeland in relation to the West. Taking everyday objects and transforming them with simple rearrangements, da Cunha opens up reflection on their cultural and social connotations while engaging with the local and international histories of abstraction and minimalism.
Turner Prize-nominated artist Goshka Macuga is well known for her sculptural environments that blur the roles of artist, curator and collector. Recent solo shows include the 8th Berlin Biennale in 2014, The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation in 2013 and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, in 2012.
Contemporary Art Society Collections Patron and collector Linda Keyte has invited Turner Prize-nominated Isaac Julien. Julien is an installation artist and filmmaker known for breaking down the barriers that exist between different artistic disciplines, drawing from and commenting on film, dance, photography, music, theatre, painting and sculpture, and uniting these to construct a powerfully visual narrative. His work explores complex issues of cultural history and belonging – most recently, the question of what drives people to cross continents in search of a ‘better life’.
Caroline Douglas, Director, Contemporary Art Society, said:
After seven years of hugely successful galas it is once again time for the Contemporary Art Society to trailblaze with a new twist to fundraising. Some of the most dynamic and successful rising and established artists working today who are close to the Contemporary Art Society will be leading the way and we are very excited to see their creations. All the money raised from these fundraising events will go directly to support the charity’s mission to place the best contemporary art into museums across the UK.
Anita Zabludowicz, Founder, Zabludowicz Collection, said:
A dinner party should be a personal and generous event and The Artist’s Table promises to be just that. I am so looking forward to developing an unreproducible experience with Alexandre da Cunha that allows people to experience the spirit of his practice in a new way. The Contemporary Art Society continues to innovate in their fundraising strategy by placing a sensitivity to artists and their work at the centre of their mission. I am certain that new friendships and supporters of the Contemporary Art Society will be forged at the same time by these unique dinner parties.
Further information about these events and tickets are available at www.contemporaryartsociety.org/events/theartiststable. Tickets are £750.
For all press enquiries please contact:
Marcus Crofton, Communications Manager, Contemporary Art Society
marcus@contemporaryartsociety.org
+44 (0)20 7017 8412