Barbara Kruger, “When was the last time you laughed?,” 2011.
This September, dozens of art world figures are coming together for a benefit and art auction raising money for Planned Parenthood Los Angeles (PPLA).
The event, titled Sexy Beast, features works from 42 artists in total. Some of them, like Camille Henrot, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Rirkrit Tiravanija, are major, blue chip artists. Others, like Whitney Hubbs and Margaux Ogden, aren’t quite as well known. Enthusiasm amongst participating artists has been high. Over one fourth of the pieces were created specifically for the auction or are new.
The auction consists of two parts: an online auction, hosted by Paddle 8, which opened on August 29; and a live auction, hosted by Viveca Paulin-Ferrell (the wife of comedian Will Ferrell), which will take place to tomorrow night, September 10, at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles. The online auction ends Sunday, September 11, so there’s still time to bid.
This is the second edition of the event. Sexy Beast was founded in 2014 by Night Gallery’s Mieke Marple and Davida Nemeroff. The inaugural auction, hosted by comedian Jack Black, raised more than $500,000 for PPLA.
Says Barbara Kruger, about her participation in the auction: “I wanted to be involved because sexuality, race and gender can determine what you have and what you don’t, how long you live or how soon you die, whether you speak or whether you’re silenced, whether you’re allowed to laugh or can only fear, whether you use power or power uses you.”
“I’m attempting to counteract the thoughts and actions of people like Mike Pence,” said Marilyn Minter. “He’s gone on record saying, “We’ll see Roe Vs. Wade consigned to the ash heap of history where it belongs.”
Additionally, the Sexy Beast benefit will honor director Dawn Porter, whose recent documentary,Trapped, which premiered at Sundance this year, follows clinic workers, doctors, and lawyers who are fighting against TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) laws, which enforce arbitrary geographic, administrative, or health standards on abortion clinics to render them virtually inaccessible, or to close them altogether.
Here’s the complete list of artists donating work to Sexy Beast:
Theodora Allen, Harold Ancart, Darren Bader, Alex Becerra, Larry Bell, Brian Belott, Jennifer Boysen, Katherine Bradford, Brian Calvin, Nina Chanel Abney, Alex Chaves, Mira Dancy, Marcel Dzama, Laeh Glenn, Jennifer Guidi, Camille Henrot, Whitney Hubbs, Xylor Jane, Jasper Johns, Dwyer Kilcollin, Josh Kline, Barbara Kruger, Sadie Laska, Eric Mack, Robert Mapplethorpe, Calvin Marcus, Orion Martin, Eddie Martinez, Julie Mehretu, Paul McCarthy, Marilyn Minter, Sam Moyer, Margaux Ogden, Alex Olson, Neil Raitt, Sterling Ruby, Ed Ruscha, Matt Sheridan Smith, Lucie Stahl, Despina Stokou, Claire Tabouret, Samantha Thomas, Rirkrit Tiravanija
— Taylor Dafoe (@tddafoe)
