Left: Artist Michael Portnoy, New Museum director Lisa Phillips, and Swiss Institute director Gianni Jetzer. Right: Artist Michael Bell-Smith and Rhizome.org director Lauren Cornell. (Unless noted, all photos: David Velasco)
Apparently the Rhizome benefit rocked -- I'm sorry I missed it!!
via Artforum Scene & Herd, 4/18/07, By Dawn Chan:
Am I the only one disconcerted by the decor at Chelsea megaclub Hiro Ballroom? Any flat surface that isn’t wood-paneled is embellished with either kanji characters or questionable pseudoerotic tableaux. Otherwise, it’s a lovely space, and Rhizome.org, the New Museum's new-media affiliate, which curates both real-world and virtual art exhibitions, made the most of the intimate lighting and cozy booths for its benefit on Monday evening. Organized by director Lauren Cornell, the event featured three bands with legs in the art world—Gang Gang Dance, Professor Murder, and YACHT—and multimedia artist Cory Arcangel as MC.
Left: Critic and curator Rachel Greene, Whitney curator Shamim Momin, and artist Sue De Beer. Right: Artist Leo Villareal with Rhizome.org founder Mark Tribe.
VIPs received a pair of chopsticks from the desk and a welcome from Cornell, who was surprisingly warm and equanimous given that an Artforum staffer (who will remain unnamed) had rear-ended her boyfriend’s rental car the day before. We ascended to the mezzanine, where attendees—mostly thirty- and fortysomething friends of the New Museum—adopted the hunched posture characteristic of people eating noodles from take-out boxes. [more pics; read on...]
