George Rush, Tama Janowitz and
Arto Lindsay |
Lauren Ezersky and
Michaela Martigniani |
Olivia
Georgia, Michèle Gerber Klein
and Joanna Molloy |
Tony Gardner, Janis Cecil and
Charles Cecil |
BRONX
MUSEUM OF THE ARTS
Carriage Trade
Treks Down To
East Village To Tout Tropicalia
Story by Roger Webster
Photos by Tara Todras-Whitehill/Patrick McMullan
 ICHELE
GERBER KLEIN
hosted a wildly entertaining dinner party to announce Bronx Museum
of the Arts’ upcoming Brazilian exhibition, Tropicália, curated
by her co-host Carlos Basualdo, at the new East Village hot
spot Chez es Saada.
This
was a perfect choice as the restaurant is literally covered with
art: on the walls, on the furniture, from the sound system and
decidedly from the kitchen.
They
served caipirinhas, wickedly trendy South American drinks prepared
with cachaça and fresh limes, Jerusalem bread, tuna tartar, thick
delicious lamb chops, and knafeh for dessert.
Guests descended a stairway, strewn with rose petals, and found
themselves in an exotic dining room decorated by Izar Patkin
featuring his 1989 neoprene wall hangings depicting a Baroque
cornucopia of foods, stars and gardens that were once a part of Holly
Solomon’s legendary art collection.
Guests
included the designer Kaspar; the novelist Tama Janowitz
and her husband Tim Hunt of the Warhol Foundation;
Sotheby’s Royce Pinkwater; Michaela Martigniani, an art
collector from Sag Harbor via Italy; The Daily News’ George
Rush and Joanna Molloy; Charles Cecil and the
Marlborough Gallery’s Janis Cecil with her father Tony
Gardner; I-20 Gallery’s Alice and Paul Judelson.
Also
W Magazine’s James Reginato; Jeffry Klein; Quest
Magazine’s Jennifer Ceaser; Mona Wyatt, art historian Gabriella
De Ferrari; Behind the Velvet Ropes’ Lauren Ezersky;
and Italian Architectural Digest writer Gracia
d’Annunzio, the granddaughter of the famous poet and
playwright Gabriele d'Annunzio.
Bronx
Museum of the Art’s director Olivia Georgia and curators Lydia
Yee and Amy Martin spoke about the Brazilian exhibit,
scheduled to open in May 2005. It will include music, sculpture,
performance and paintings by artists such as musician Arto
Lindsay, “experience” sculptor Ernesto Neto, and
photographer Eli Sudbrack, who were all at the party.
Alina
Slonim, Chez es Saada’s attractive proprietress, brought her
talent all the way from Israel to add to the international magic
of New York. |
