NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Club’s ornate, gilded 19th-century interiors were a bit too much for Klaus Biesenbach last night. “I really like empty white spaces, now what have I done to deserve this?” he joked. The MoMA PS1 director and MoMA chief curator at large was at the American Federation of Arts Fall Gala to present artist Sarah Sze with the organization’s annual Cultural Leadership Award. The curator, who has commissioned Sze for several projects over the years, also poked fun at their relationship. “Whenever I see Sarah, I think she is running because she thinks, ‘Oh my god [he has] another idea.’”
“He has this huge fear of non-white spaces, and I tend to destroy those spaces,” quipped Sze at Biesenbach after she accepted the honor. Sze touched upon her connection to the AFA’s mission of bringing fine art to smaller museums. “This is important me because I became an artist in museums and in travelling shows,” she said in her speech.
Sze also described her 2013 Venice Biennale installation to ARTINFO. “I’m really focused on playing off the neoclassical symmetry of the building, so it’s going to be much more about a totally immersive experience where things wax and wane in terms of the transitions.” As for her timeline, the artist only has two more months to prepare in the United States. “I’m going to be there [in Venice] for three months, so that pushes us back to packing and shipping in January,” said Sze.
Click on the slideshow to see guests at the American Federation of Arts Fall Gala.
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