When event organizers started musing about fall art benefits way back in the spring, somehow three big shindigs were planned on the very same night. And that meant that we had to scramble to three different black ties, dinners, and auctions in less four hours, all in distinct neighborhoods. Let’s recap, shall we?

What: New York Academy of Art’s Take Home a Nude Annual Auction Gala
Where: Sotheby’s
Concept: Lots of affordable art up for grabs during the silent auction, face time with honoree Eric Fischl
Best Feature: The auction Marshalls who looked liked the happy extras from The Truman Show
Top guests: Samantha and Aby Rosen, Padma Lakshmi, Mary Boone, Will Cotton, Gretchen Mol, and Eileen Guggenheim
Best quotable: “For all the candy in my life, I can be very boring for breakfasts. I eat oatmeal every day but I do mix it up by putting dates and nuts into it,” Will Cotton.

---

What: Museum of Arts & Design METALBALL
Where: See above!
Concept: A mult-floor celebration featuring a sit down dinner, young artist metal themed auction, opened exhibits, and yes, a seventh floor for happy boozing and sighseeing
Best Feature: David Victor Rose’s interactive art piece full of metal art sculptures which Lisa Edelstein, Paul Sevigny and Waris lined up to sign
Top guests: Richard Meier, Michael Stipe, Lazaro Hernandez, Kalup Linzy, ThreeASFOUR crew, and Joe Manganiello (that dude from True Blood).
Best quotable: “I know there’s a party going on downstairs, but you need to run to Dead or Alive exhibit right now. Because once it closes, you’ll regret it,” Lorenzo Martone to friends.

---

What: Americans for the Arts 2010 National Arts Awards
Where: Cipriani 42nd Street
Concept: A sit down dinner featuring awesomely gifted Americans…like Angela Lansbury
Best Feature: Angela Lansbury happily posing with Kate & Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte and Alec Baldwin. Brilliantly random.
Top Guests: Fresh from LA Jeffrey Deitch, Josephine Meckseper and Richard Phillips, Jeff Koons, Kim Gordon, Cameron Silver, and Todd Eberle.
Best quotable: “I wouldn’t even know how to begin to learn how to dress myself. Every morning, I sit back and surrender to the genius wardrobe department of 30 Rock,” Alec Baldwin.

It is hot in the city, very hot. So I imagine lots of skin at the Haunch of Venison opening tonight, which is perfect because my paintings are all skin. Haunch was nice enough to ask me to do a project along side Alexandra Grant, Doug Argue and Bill Fontana. Since the paintings are a peek into the most intimate of moments I figured why not also offer a peek into the often unseen activity and energy that ends up bottled in the finished works. All the chemist mixes on the table and splatters on the studio floor, the paintings living for awhile cozy, shoulder to “shoulder,” before their new roomier homes. The only studio witness, roaming, in form of trusted Labrador. The dreaded rolling of largest works (all went well thankfully). Paintings arrive at the gallery wrapped in a teasing gauzy haze of glassine and plastic. Propped against walls looking very much like the bodies they depict. The couple painted here are “putting on a show” so here are a few behind the scene shots.

Once upon a time, Rob Pruitt had an unflinching dream. While watching the telecast of the Oscars (or MTV Movie Awards or Latin Grammy honors or very prestigious Daytime Emmys) he thought to himself: Why shouldn’t the art folks have the same democratic opportunities to make self-indulgent acceptance speeches and shamelessly borrow tuxedos and clutches during THAT time of the year? After all, everyone likes to win something or at least be nominated for something whether they work in the Senate or at the suburban Burger King. So, Pruitt’s productive realization of The First Annual Art Awards is certainly admirable. On Thursday, he brought the very first event of its kind to Guggenheim while Calvin Klein Collection sponsored. We could have had an informal ceremony at a local YMCA funded by Nabisco.

Here at Art Box, we encourage some of our favorite people in the art world to contribute with their takes on recent museum and gallery experiences. Hikari Yokoyama, an accomplished art adviser and a curator writes about the recently opened Anish Kapoor exhibition at New York’s Guggenheim. It runs through March 28, 2010.

---

This week, I drove uptown with some friends to attend the Anish Kapoor opening at The Guggenheim. Kapoor is well known for his shiny, simple curved sculptures that hold convex or concave reflections of the forms’ surroundings. The last I saw his work, was at his solo effort at the Gladstone Gallery, where I couldn’t resist running my finger over a long pungent crimson wax turd lying across the floor. Kapoor is an artist that I will always make the effort to see when I have the chance; his work is conceptually rigorous, but always pleasing to the senses.

For this exhibition – I came with no expectations or knowledge of what I was going to see. I was disappointed to find out that they weren’t keeping all of the galleries open so I could do my usual circular sliding-in-heels journey down the ramp.

We wandered through the galleries housing the permanent collection, confused about where this Kapoor exhibition actually was. His work is normally large scale and prominent and usually placed in open spaces where the sculpture draws in the vacant margin around it. Instead, this time I was surprised to walk around a corner and up a short set of stairs, I found a crowd of people lining up to peer into what seemed like nothing. And by nothing, I mean a black void perfectly framed by white wall. The line coagulated as people got to the front and peered in, straining to see something, some shielding their eyes as if looking into a glare or making little binoculars with their hands as if imaginary lenses would reveal something unseen to the fingerless eye.

I heard an off-hand comment that this was a joke on or for the art world, come all the way uptown to stand in a line of well dressed people to crane your neck and stare at nothing.

The piece is entitled Memory and commissioned by Deutsche Bank. Upon further exploration, we discovered that you could go around and see the steel encasement that had blocked out all light to make the void. It was heavy, rusty, curvaceous riveted steel – a bulging orb bursting out of the white rectangular back room. Seeing this more literal explanation of the absurd darkness on the other side, was enlightening and surprisingly disappointing. But observing the structure itself granted some gratification as to evidence of the craft and the labor that went into this piece (the black void ended up not being the same as staring into a closet) but at the same time, the mysterious feeling of peering into infinite space was grounded by a quick, concise understanding of the reality behind the trick.

Socially, the event was calm and subdued. I said hello to Hilary, the ever gracious and enthusiastic director of the YCC, we had one more drink and left into the warm night.

Hikari Yokoyama is based in New York City. She pursued her studies in the fine arts and art history at Columbia University and the University of Chicago. She has worked in various capacities, including gallery assistant, non-profit curatorial director, and acquisitions for corporate and private collections, always maintaining art at the center of her professional orbit. She currently works as roving director to Gresham’s Ghost and manages a private collection. Her crayon pusher parents encouraged her to make art instead of bickering with her little sister. Now she is intent on adding fuel to the ever-evolving and dynamic contemporary art world.