More than 50 artworks were donated for the 19th edition of the event by contemporary artists including Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Allison Katz, Emma McIntyre, Shota Nakamura, and Marina Perez Simao. The ArtCrush Gala, slated for August 2nd, is the museum’s largest annual fundraiser, generating support for the museum’s exhibitions and educational programs. In celebration of the Aspen Art Museum 45th anniversary, the artists for the first time have been invited to retain up to 30% of the proceeds from their works sold during the auction. 

“As an artist-founded institution, artists are centered within all we do, and the fulfilment of our mission depends on their trust,” Nicola Lees, the museum’s director, said in a statement shared with ARTnews. “This year’s outstanding ArtCrush auction is a testament to the remarkable artists and supporters within our community…and we invite artists to retain a portion of the proceeds of their donated works, thereby promoting continuity, equitability, and sustainability. It is a policy we will be proud to implement long into the future.”

In the lead-up to the gala, the ArtCrush 2024 Auction Exhibition will be on display at the museum starting July 17. For the first time, the museum is partnering with Design Miami to include an array of design works in the auction, broadening the scope of the event. 

Christie’s, the museum’s auction partner, will conduct two auctions for the event. The first will be a live auction during the gala, led by Adrien Meyer, Christie’s global head of private sales and co-chairman of Impressionist and modern art. The second auction will take place virtually, with online bidding opening on Christie’s website on July 25. 

Boxers form a recurring motif in the show’s canvases, soft sculpture, and installation elements, as well as an ongoing boxer exchange program that is meant to help create community and intimacy at a moment in which artists have had to design new ways of being together while having to be socially distanced.

The show, Chase said in a recent video interview, is “bearing witness to transformation and to healing: water, being submerged, a wave washing over you.” It also draws heavily on the fashion and music videos of the early 2000s—“Mariah Carey was at her peak at that point,” they said—shortly after Chase came out in 1999. Other influences that Chase has drawn on throughout their career abound, like the work of Ghada Amer, Kehinde Wiley, Chris Ofili, and Barkley L. Hendricks, whom Chase sees as part of their “genealogy of figure making,” as well as the X-Men comic books and video games like Sonic, Crash Bandicoot, Final Fantasy, and Tomb Raider.

Jonathan Lyndon Chase, in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, “Big Wash” (exhibition view), 2020.

The boxers that appear in the exhibition and the exchange program were created as part of Chase’s recent residency at the Fabric Workshop. The show’s curator, Karen Patterson, met Chase shortly after moving to Philadelphia to take the job at the Fabric Workshop. As one of her first moves, she wanted to revive the Fabric Workshop’s residency program as a way for the museum to be more deeply connected to Philadelphia-based artists.

“The roots of the Fabric Workshop when it started were these short-term screen-printing artist residencies,” Patterson said. “I wanted to see if contemporary artists were still as interested in learning and trying screen-printing to see how that might impact their practice.”

Patterson conducted a studio visit Chase, who is based in Philadelphia, where they were born and raised, toward the end of 2019. In Chase’s work, which typically takes the form of intimate portraits of Black queer people that include collaged elements, Patterson noticed that the artist was already working with “domestic textiles: sheets, towels, bedding, clothing,” and she subsequently invited Chase to be a resident artist.

As part of the residency program, Chase worked with the museum’s technicians to create a fabric that drew inspiration from archival binders the artist uses to collect color swatches and poetry, as well as notes and sketches they make based on things they encounter. Chase then assembled the selected sketches onto a piece of Masonite before they were converted into several transparencies that would eventually be silkscreened over two 19-yard bolts of white fabric.

Jonathan Lyndon Chase’s “Bending $ag”, silk-screen printed yardage produced during their residency at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, 2019.

The resulting print is a collage of Chase’s signature portraits of queer Black people, who appear in the wings of orange butterflies next to roses of varying sizes, watches, musical notes, and squiggly lines over a deep periwinkle-blue background. The overall design is meant to evoke plaid boxer shorts.

The butterflies are meant to evoke “love and romance” and symbolize “metamorphosis, mortality, and transness,” while the roses, Chase said, are “a metaphor for pleasure points on the body: nipples, lips, anus. Our mouths are actually the same material as our anus—they’re just like on the opposite ends. I like to draw that bodily correspondence together.”

Jonathan Lyndon Chase, hes fine with me, 2020.

Once the fabric was complete, Chase took much of it back to their studio to incorporate it in a new suite of paintings and soft sculptures for the upcoming exhibition. In some works, the fabric appear subtly, as collaged fragments, like in the soft sculpture smellin gold rosebuds on my upper lip (all works 2020). In several, they appear as the boxers for the painting’s subjects: peaking over a pair of sagged pants in hes fine with me or hanging out to dry in Helping Hands. Occasionally, the works have a voyeuristic quality, appearing in the background as a shower curtain, like in Soapy Shower, or as curtains pulled back to reveal an intimate scene of people in their apartment.

One of the show’s largest paintings, measuring more than seven feet long and installed atop three bricks, is hang up vibrating purse, which shows a mostly nude figure looking over its shoulder. On their shoulder is a medium-sized handbag made from the blue and orange fabric, upon which Chase has collaged two red Motorola Razr flip phones (one open, one closed). “It has this incredible presence,” Patterson said.

Jonathan Lyndon Chase, hang up vibrating purse, 2020.

The people depicted in Chase’s paintings are a combination of their husband, their chosen family, friends, fellow artists, and themself, while others the artist makes from their imagination.

“I make work for queer people and Black people,” Chase said. “That is my first priority—it’s my only priority in that way. I’m not saying that anyone’s excluded, but my audience is my own people. I want them to feel seen. I think back to when I was young and not knowing there were Black artists because they teach you this very skewed and white-filled history.

“For me,” Chase continued, “my work is a source to meditate and reflect and to think about different ways that you can exist. There’s not just option A or B. There’s so many ways that you can exist.”

Jonathan Lyndon Chase, in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, “Big Wash” (exhibition view), 2020.

The installation for “Big Wash” also includes a central space resembling a laundromat, replete with black-and-white tiled floor, two yellow-painted washing machines, soft sculptures of sinks mounted to a wall, and three laundry carts connected by white string that hold boxer shorts made from Chase’s custom-designed fabric.

“The laundromat has a really interesting dynamic between public and private,” Patterson said. “Essentially, you’re in a public space but you’re washing your intimates next to a stranger. There’s a charged energy that joins together at the laundromat. We wanted to make it feel like you had to traverse that space and question your body as it moves through different spaces.”

Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Sad forecast, 2020.

Also key to the exhibition is a boxer exchange program in which Chase created men’s boxers out of the fabric designed in collaboration with the Fabric Workshop. Chase sent the boxers to a small initial group of friends, and the exchange is still ongoing. The boxers arrived in a box with instructions about the program, as well as baby’s breath (a symbol for love).

“Now, more than ever, we’re so separated from each other, so I was thinking of different ways that we could connect with each other,” Chase said. “The isolation from everybody is just really painful, especially in times like this now, where you need to be there for each other.”

Each participant is to wear the boxers for about a week and during that time document their “day-to-day, mundane activities—whatever they want” in various forms from written notes to selfies and more. Each participant then sent their documentations to Chase, washed the boxers, and sent them onto another person. “They have this living energy to them,” they added.

Jonathan Lyndon Chase, 6 days a week, 2020.

The boxer exchange program ties into the exhibition’s title, “Big Wash,” which Chase sees as a way to think about the ways in which we “practice self-care. How do we wash our bodies, our minds, our souls? How do we wash our domestic spaces?”

The works that Chase created for the Fabric Workshop were all done within the context of the ongoing pandemic and the swell of Black Lives Matter protests that were ignited over the summer with the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

“Every single day that I wake up there’s a trans person or a Black person killed,” Chase said. “After a while, I’m not sad—I’m angry. I’m just so fucking tired. We have to protest in the middle of a pandemic. I turn on the internet and you just casually see a dead Black person—just there. There’s no way you could ever get used to that.”

Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Soapy Shower, 2020.

Chase said that they had to take a short break from creating art last year. “I started feeling sick because of all of the death and violence that I was seeing,” they said. The break helped them realize that they don’t value their art making in terms of productivity and how much art they can make.

But they eventually returned to making art as it became an increasingly important outlet for them to express how they had been navigating the past few difficult months. “Images on their own can only do so much. I don’t think art can solve every problem, but it is at least in the right direction,” they said.

In channeling that energy, Chase looked to water and the elements as a way to evoke this concept of healing and transformation and for the many emotions that they—we, all of us—have felt over the past 10 months.

“I always say, ‘We can’t control our emotions. We can only endure,’” Chase said. “The enduring part is the complicated part. If it rains, you can’t stop it from raining. You get an umbrella. So if you’re sad, witness your sadness. Don’t try not to judge yourself and the time will come to pass.”

Installation view of “Jonathan Lyndon Chase: Quiet Storm,” 2018, at Company Gallery, New York.

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND COMPANY GALLERY, NEW YORK

Pictures at an Exhibition presents images of one notable show every weekday.

Today’s show: “Jonathan Lyndon Chase: Quiet Storm” is on view at Company in New York through Sunday, May 6. The exhibition presents new work by the Philadelphia-based artist.

01

Jonathan Lyndon Chase, lovers in pink bed, 2018, acrylic, chalk, marker, graphite, and pastel on cotton sheet.

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND COMPANY GALLERY, NEW YORK

Jonathan Lyndon Chase, yellow beauty, 2018, acrylic, rhinestones, marker on cotton sheet.

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND COMPANY GALLERY, NEW YORK

Jonathan Lyndon Chase, combing my hair, 2017, acrylic, oil stick, rhinestone, glitter, canon printer collage, marker, and graphite on cotton sheet.

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND COMPANY GALLERY, NEW YORK

Jonathan Lyndon Chase, 56nd street, 2018, acrylic, spray paint, rhinestone, oil stick, and glitter on canvas.

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND COMPANY GALLERY, NEW YORK

Jonathan Lyndon Chase, steamy reflection under fan, 2018, acrylic, spray paint, glitter, and oil stick on canvas.

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND COMPANY GALLERY, NEW YORK

Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Quiet Storm, 2016, acrylic, oil stick, crayon, marker, glitter, and spray paint on canvas.

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND COMPANY GALLERY, NEW YORK

Installation view of "Jonathan Lyndon Chase: Quiet Storm," 2018, at Company Gallery, New York.

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND COMPANY GALLERY, NEW YORK

Jonathan Lyndon Chase, yellow beauty, 2018, acrylic, rhinestones, marker on cotton sheet, installation view.

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND COMPANY GALLERY, NEW YORK

Installation view of "Jonathan Lyndon Chase: Quiet Storm," 2018, at Company Gallery, New York.

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND COMPANY GALLERY, NEW YORK

Installation view of "Jonathan Lyndon Chase: Quiet Storm," 2018, at Company Gallery, New York.

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND COMPANY GALLERY, NEW YORK

Installation view of "Jonathan Lyndon Chase: Quiet Storm," 2018, at Company Gallery, New York.

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND COMPANY GALLERY, NEW YORK

Installation view of "Jonathan Lyndon Chase: Quiet Storm," 2018, at Company Gallery, New York.

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND COMPANY GALLERY, NEW YORK

Fontana Workshop, Anatomical Venus, 1780–85, wood skeleton, transparent wax, pigmented wax, hair, and satin cushion.

SEMMELWEISS MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE/HUNGARIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM, BUDAPEST

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21

Exhibition: “Like Life: Sculpture, Color, and the Body (1300–Now)” at Met Breuer
Featuring 120 works created over a span of 700 years, “Life Like: Sculpture, Color, and the Body” considers how artistic ideals, concerns, and techniques for sculpting the human body have shifted since the 14th century. The exhibition brings together works of diverse temporal and geographical origins, juxtaposing forms and calling into question the usefulness of figuration as an artistic mode. In addition to pieces by Donatello, El Greco, Edgar Degas, Louise Bourgeois, Fred Wilson, Bharti Kher, and Robert Gober, the show includes wax figures, mannequins, reliquaries, and anatomical models.
Met Breuer, 945 Madison Avenue, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

Opening: “The Metropolis in Latin America, 1830–1930” at Americas Society
Comprising maps, plans, blueprints, and photographs, “The Metropolis in Latin America” presents a visual history of various Latin American cities, from colonial rule to the modern era. Transplanted from the Getty Center, where it showed during the fall as part of the initiative Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, the exhibition explores the process of purging colonial symbols from cities and the ways in which industrialization, advances in infrastructure, and the rise of the bourgeoisie affected the development of urban layouts and spaces.
Americas Society, 680 Park Avenue, 7–9 p.m.

Miriam Schapiro, Gates of Paradise, 1980, acrylic, fabric, glitter on canvas.

©MIRIAM SCHAPIRO/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK/COURTESY ERIC FIRESTONE GALLERY, NEW YORK

THURSDAY, MARCH 22

Exhibition: “Surface/Depth: The Decorative After Miriam Schapiro” at Museum of Arts and Design
Miriam Schapiro, who died in 2015, was a leader of the feminist and decorative art movements of the 1970s. With a particular focus on her “femmages” (works that combine painting and collage), “The Decorative After Miriam Schapiro” situates her practice and politics among contemporary artworks made by Sanford Biggers, Edie Fake, Jasmin Sian, and others. A meditation on the decorative that promises a vibrant display of colors, patterns, and shapes, the exhibition celebrates the once-derided crafts that Schapiro strived to legitimize in the art world. Also included are pieces from the artist’s estate, including needlework, folk art, and fabric swatches.
Museum of Arts and Design, 2 Columbus Circle, 10 a.m.–9 p.m.

Opening: “In Tribute to Jack Tilton: A Selection from 35 Years” at Jack Tilton Gallery
Nearly a year after the death of Jack Tilton, the dealer’s New York gallery will memorialize its namesake with a survey of more than three decades of shows. Tilton helped to assist in the development of a long list of influential contemporary artists, and his gallery, which opened in 1983, staged seminal shows for Nicole Eisenman, Marlene Dumas, and David Lynch, just to name a few. This tribute show boasts a strong artist list that includes David Hammons, Huang Yong Ping, Betty Parsons, Kiki Smith, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Xu Bing.
Tilton Gallery, 8 East 76th Street, 5:30–8:30 p.m.

Performance “MindTravel with Bowie” at Brooklyn Museum
Billed as not just a performance but rather a “musical experience,” “MindTravel with Bowie” will use wireless headphones and additional visual components as the core environment for the composer Murray Hidary’s sprawling improvisational piano pieces. Part of a larger series of “silent” direct-to-headphones concerts thrown by Hidary, the night is inspired by everything from non-Western philosophy and metaphysics to David Bowie’s own outlook on life.
Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, 7–9 p.m.

Constance DeJong and Tony Oursler, Relatives, performance view at the Kitchen, New York, 1989.

©PAULA COURT/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND BUREAU, NEW YORK

FRIDAY, MARCH 23

Performance: Constance DeJong and Tony Oursler at the Kitchen
After a 20-year period apart, Constance DeJong and Tony Oursler will reunite for a new staging of their 1988 performance w Relatives. (Having first debuted at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston in 1988, the performance was first staged at the Kitchen in 1989.) The piece utilizes spoken text and video to create a back-and-forth between a performer and a television, to explore a genealogy of history’s minor figures charted through appearances in painting, photography, film, television and video games.
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, 8 p.m. Tickets $15/$20

Still from The Exorcist, 1973, 132 minutes.

COURTESY GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM

SATURDAY, MARCH 24

Screening: The Exorcist at Guggenheim Museum
A horror-movie classic comes to the Guggenheim Museum this week courtesy of Danh Vo, who is currently the subject of a major survey at the institution. In the past, Vo has made work inspired by The Exorcist (1973), which follows a priest charged with exorcizing an ancient demon that’s inhabited the body of a girl, but apparently his choice to screen the Oscar–nominated film comes from a personal place. “[The Exorcist] was shown to Vo by his horror-film-obsessed mother at the age of seven, when it no doubt made a terrifyingly indelible impression,” Katherine Brinson, the show’s curator, said in a statement. “The film’s interrogation of religious faith and doubt, its depiction of the appropriated and dislocated body, and its themes of parental nurture and neglect can all be similarly traced in the artist’s work.”
Guggenheim Museum, 1071 5th Avenue, 2:30 p.m.

A work by Jonathan Lyndon Chase from his Company Gallery exhibition.

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND COMPANY GALLERY

SUNDAY, MARCH 25

Opening: Matana Roberts at Fridman Gallery
Matana Roberts has called her work “panoramic sound quilting,” or the cobbling together of images and sounds to create versions of personal histories. Her past work has brought together everything from blank musical scores to appropriated images of Harriet Tubman and Sioux Native Americans. With this new show, titled “jump at the sun” after a passage from a Zora Neal Hurston novel, Roberts will debut new mixed-media works that deal with the “colonization of form,” or the way places absorb objects with political meaning, according to the artist.
Fridman Gallery, 287 Spring Street, 6–8 p.m.

Opening: Jonathan Lyndon Chase at Company Gallery
In Jonathan Lyndon Chase’s work, thinly painted figures appear to commune with one another. Sometimes, they seem to be having sex; in others, the figures simply lounge next to one another. For Chase, these are images of what intimacy—both in the view of the public eye and outside it—might mean today. “I think about identity and masks,” Chase has said. “Roles we take on in private spaces and in public spaces.” At this exhibition, titled “Quiet Storm,” Chase will show new and recent paintings.
Company Gallery, 88 Eldridge Street, 5th Floor, 6–8 p.m.