SFMOMA Birthday Bash, 2017; photo Drew Altizer Photography
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (March 12, 2019) — The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) announces that Art Bash, its art-filled biennial fundraiser, will be held on Wednesday, May 22, 2019. With seven floors of modern and contemporary art installations and performances, Art Bash is an exciting one-night-only experience that benefits SFMOMA’s vibrant exhibition and education programs, which affirm the significance of art with the goal to be accessible and meaningful to the broadest possible audience.
The two-part fundraising evening of art experiences throughout the museum will include an exquisite dinner with tablescapes by artist Tauba Auerbach, followed by a lively museum-wide party featuring activations by artists JR, Nick Cave and Stephen ESPO Powers, as well as special music performances by A-Trak, Luna, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down and more.
THE DINNER
Dinner guests will kick off the evening at 6 p.m. with an artful cocktail hour in SFMOMA’s street-level Roberts Family Gallery, surrounded by JR’s monumental digital mural The Chronicles of San Francisco. At 7 p.m. dinner guests, including celebrated artists and art world leaders, will ascend the museum’s Roman Steps to Helen and Charles Schwab Hall for a delectable vegetarian dinner experience featuring tablescapes by artist Tauba Auerbach, who will be the subject of a major survey exhibition at SFMOMA next spring.
THE PARTY
Following the dinner, the entire museum will open to dinner and party guests from 8:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. for revelry throughout the building. Guests will enjoy outstanding music, live art-making and all you can eat and drink. Highlights of the party will include:
Floor 1
EXHIBITION OPENING AND PORTRAIT-MAKING
JR: The Chronicles of San Francisco and Inside Out
Art Bash will mark the debut of The Chronicles of San Francisco, the extraordinary digital mural by French photographer and artist JR depicting a cross-section of daily life for over 1,200 people in San Francisco. JR will also activate Inside Out: The People’s Art Project in the outdoor Howard Street corridor by taking portraits of guests in his mobile studio and immediately pasting the images onto a nearby wall, offering partygoers the exciting opportunity to participate in one of the artist’s unique installations. Over the course of the evening, the wall will transform into a temporary one-of-a-kind mural of Art Bash attendees.
ART EXPERIENCE
Nick Cave
Renowned performance and multimedia artist Nick Cave will activate the atrium with a glowing LED art floor and Soundsuit Invasions. Throughout the evening, 10 dancers in Cave’s elaborate and whimsical Soundsuits will take to the floor.
Right: Nick Cave Soundsuit Invasions; photo: photo Zan Wimberley, courtesy Carriageworks, Sydney
PERFORMANCE
DJ D Sharp
The official DJ of the reigning NBA champions the Golden State Warriors, DJ D Sharp will spin irresistible beats in the entrance at Minna Street.
PERFORMANCE
A-Trak
The party will culminate in the soaring atrium with an unforgettable performance by Canadian DJ A-Trak. Named one of the 50 most important people in electronic dance music by Rolling Stone, A-Trak has toured with Kanye West and worked with Kid Cudi, Danny Brown and Flosstradamus, among other musicians.
Floor 2
EXHIBITIONS
Open Ended: Painting and Sculpture, 1900 to Now
Mythos, Psyche, Eros: Jess and California
Floor 3
ART EXPERIENCE
Art Bar by Stephen ESPO Powers
On the third floor, guests will enjoy festive cocktails at an Art Bar created by Brooklyn- and Philadelphia-based artist Stephen ESPO Powers. The outdoor bar will be in front of Living Wall on the sculpture terrace near Powers’s exhibition in the Architecture + Design gallery. Powers’s site-specific commission, Daymaker, will bring his energetic layering of sign painting, contemporary iconographies and typographic musings to SFMOMA.
EXHIBITIONS
snap+share: transmitting photographs from mail art to social networks
Stephen ESPO Powers: Daymaker
Louis Stettner: Traveling Light
Johannes Brus
Elemental Calder
Floor 4
WARHOL EXPERIENCE
The Silver Factory featuring Luna and DJ Kelley Stoltz
In celebration of the major retrospective Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again, the fourth-floor White Box will be transformed into The Silver Factory inspired by Warhol’s New York studio and presented by Bank of America. Guests will party like famous artists with Warhol film screenings and intimate performances by the indie pop band Luna and DJ Kelley Stoltz. Luna band members Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips have been closely involved with The Andy Warhol Museum over the past 15 years, including through the performance commissions 13 Most Beautiful: Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests and Exposed: Songs for Unseen Warhol Films.
EXHIBITIONS
Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again
New Work: Rodney McMillian
Approaching American Abstraction
Floor 5
EXPERIENCE
The California Experience featuring Thao & The Get Down Stay Down and DJ Lady Ryan
San Francisco–based alternative folk rock band Thao & The Get Down Stay Down and DJ Lady Ryan will perform in the pavilion and outdoor sculpture garden.
EXHIBITIONS
Louise Bourgeois Spiders
Pop, Minimal, and Figurative Art
Floor 6
EXHIBITION
German Art after 1960
Floor 7
EXHIBITIONS
Suzanne Lacy: We Are Here
Pat O’Neill: Three Answers
THE AUCTION
Produced in partnership with Artsy, SFMOMA’s Art Bash Benefit Auction features works donated by SFMOMA Artist Trustees Rosana Castrillo Díaz and Ed Ruscha, and Art Bash special guests Tauba Auerbach and JR. Proceeds support SFMOMA’s exhibition and education programs. Bidding is available through noon PDT on May 24, 2019.
TICKETS + INFORMATION
All benefit tickets may be purchased at sfmoma.org/art-bash:
Dinner + Party Ticket, 6 p.m.–1 a.m. – $3,500
VIP Party Ticket, 7:30 p.m.–1 a.m. – $500 (includes first Party entry and exclusive lounge with food, drinks and entertainment from 7:30 p.m. until 10 p.m.)
Party Ticket, 8:30 p.m.–1 a.m. – $250
Late Night Party Ticket, 10 p.m.–1 a.m. – $95
The dress code for the evening is “artsy chic.”
All guests must be 21 years old or older to attend; valid photo ID is required for admission. A portion of all ticket sales is tax deductible.
ART BASH HOST COMMITTEE
Dolly and George Chammas
Melinda and Kevin P.B. Johnson
Jessica and Jason Moment
Gina and Stuart Peterson
Komal Shah and Gaurav Garg
John and Ali Walecka
SPONSORS + SUPPORT
Art Bash is sponsored by:
Anonymous
Dolly and George Chammas
Penny S. and James G. Coulter
Roberta and Steve Denning
The Fisher Family
Kathryn Hall and Tom Knutsen
Jessica and Jason Moment
Diana Nelson and John Atwater
Deborah and Kenneth Novack
Gina and Stuart Peterson
Lisa S. Pritzker
Helen and Charles Schwab
Komal Shah and Gaurav Garg
Larry Sonsini
John and Ali Walecka
With generous support from the Mimi and Peter Haas Fund.
Art Bash 2019 is sponsored by AT&T, Bank of America and United Airlines, with interactive experiences designed by Dropbox, Facebook and method.
Franciscan and Ruffino are the official wine sponsors. Hangar 1 Distillery is the official spirits sponsor. Fort Point Beer Company is the official beer sponsor.