ArtCrush Gala
The 2023 ArtCrush Gala, co-chaired by Jamie Tisch and Sara Zilkha, was the finale of Aspen Art Museum’s third annual ArtWeek, which has become a major convening moment on the international cultural calendar each August. Taking place from August 1 to 4, the week offered a vibrant series of artist performances, talks and live events to complement the exhibitions on view at the Aspen Art Museum. In 2023, artist Nairy Baghramian was honored with the 2023 Aspen Award for Art, coinciding with her major solo exhibition, Jupon de Corps at the museum.
Alex Israel, Sophia Cohen, Christine Heller, Djuna Bell, Nikolai Haas
ArtCrush Auction
The 2023 ArtCrush Gala auction which was presented by Sotheby’s and featured 10 live lots in addition to 60 donated works in an online auction. The auction, supported by the museum’s Collector Committee, Co-Chaired by Abigail Ross Goodman and Molly Epstein, raised funds for the museum’s year-round curatorial and educational programs through both live bidding on the night and the online auction which concluded the following day.
Sotheby’s Senior Vice President, Quig Bruning, conducted the live auction, which included bidding on 10 artworks by Nairy Baghramian, Charles Gaines, Chase Hall, Haas Brothers, Peter Halley, Spencer Lewis, Liza Lou, Howardena Pindell, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, and Carmen Herrera, setting a record for a work on paper by the artist. The online auction featured an additional 60 lots including works by Korakrit Arunanondchai, Kerstin Brätsch, Naotaka Hiro, Roberto Lugo, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Cauleen Smith and Lily Stockman, with three works going to U.S. museums.
About the Honoree
Nairy Baghramian was born in Isfahan, Iran, in 1971. She has lived and worked in Berlin since 1984. Baghramian’s work comprises sculpture and installation often in reference to architecture and the human body. Her work addresses temporal, spatial, and social relationships to language, history, and the present, with forms that materialize in response to contextual conditions or the premises of a given medium. These structures offer the possibility of an open and discursive dialogue in response to a site, or a freeing of the assigned relationship between an object and its meaning.
