FAENA ART HOSTED SONNET 18: SPRING FUNDRAISING DINNER ON MAY 9 AT FAENA MIAMI BEACH, FEATURING A SPECIAL PERFORMANCE BY JOHN LEGEND AND CELEBRATING 12 YEARS OF SUPPORTING THE ARTS
Clockwise left to right: John Legend and Alan Faena, photography by Joe Schildhorn/BFA.com;
Jariel Vichot and Sonnet 18 Best Dressed winner, fashion designer, and Faena Art Project Room artist Anabella Bergero, photography by Diane Zapata/BFA.com; Alan and Grace Faena with Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, photography by Joe Schildhorn/BFA.com; Chefs Francis Mallmann and Paul Qui, photography by Oriol Tarridas; Aerial View of Common Circle by Jim Denevan, photography by Oriol Tarridas. All images courtesy of Faena Art.
WHAT
Last night on Tuesday, May 9, 2023, the international 501(c)3 nonprofit organization Faena Art committed to commissioning, producing, and housing cross-disciplinary artistic experiencesheld Sonnet 18: Fundraising Spring Dinner, hosted by Alan Faena and featuring a special performance by John Legend, among other surprises.
Guests enjoyed a cocktail hour and seated dinner prepared by chefs Francis Mallmann, Paul Qui,and Frederic Monnet as well as an artistic intervention by land artist Jim Denevan. Guests were also invited to interpret the theme “Shakespearean Love” through their outfits, and Alan Faena awarded artist and fashion designer Anabella Bergero—whose exhibition Heart of Community is currently on view in the Faena Art Project Room—as best dressed, winning a two-night stay at Faena Hotel Penthouse as her prize.
Notable attendees included Alan and Grace Faena, Mayor of Miami Beach Dan Gelber, fashion designer Carolina K, Broadway producer Stacey Mindich, entrepreneur Magnus Resch, Nutrafol co-founder Roland Peralta, Diesel SVP of Brand Marketing Rita Shukhman, former Carnival Corporation President & CEO Arnold Donald, model Zita Vass, political analyst & CNN commentator Cornell Belcher, interior designer Peter Mikic, Ximena Caminos, artists Juan Gatti, Alexandre Arrechea, Jim Denevan, and Sebastian Errazuriz, as well as Faena Art Project Room artists Anabella Bergero, Kelly Breez, Beatriz Chachamovits, Christina Pettersson, and Cornelius Tulloch, among many other cultural tastemakers.
The evening commenced with opening remarks by Alan Faena and Jim Denevan welcoming the excited crowd as well as a reading by Chef Francis Mallmann of William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?.
Following the seated dinner around artist Jim Denevan’s Common Circle sculpture on Faena Beach, guests made their way to Faena Theater where Alan Faena and Mayorof Miami Beach Dan Gelber shared additional remarks before John Legend’s unforgettable performance. The award-winning musician performed his greatest hits and covers (including a beautiful rendition of The Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun) for the delighted crowd, who enjoyed after-concert cocktails before returning home.
WHERE
Faena Hotel Miami Beach
3201 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33140
WHEN
Tuesday, May 9, 2023
SPECIAL EXHIBITION
Commissioned by Faena Art specially for Sonnet 18, Common Circle by California-based land artist Jim Denevan is a dynamic, large-scale sculpture that forms a wooden table that seats 290 guests in a perfect circle. The monumental sculpture was created to be rearranged into circular forms such as an arc or infinity sign as it responds to its surroundings, symbolizing transformation and the cyclical rhythm of life, death, and rebirth.
The table signifies the relationship between food and ritual, communion, feasting, fasting, and the multiple ways that we convene and congregate around a meal. Alongside the commemorative dinner table, Denevan created a temporary sand drawing that washed away after sunset by the rising tide.
PROGRAM
Faena Art presented an artistic intervention by Jim Denevan and special live performances by John Legend.
CULINARY EXPERIENCES
Culinary experiences provided by Francis Mallmann, Paul Qui, and Frédéric Monnet.
PRESENTING SPONSORS
LOVED01, Lavazza, LVE Legend Vineyard Exclusive, and Chase Sapphire
SPECIAL THANKS
Armand De Brignac, Bombay Sapphire Premier Cru, Tequila Komos, Mortlach Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Fever-Tree, Martell Cognac, Red Bull, and Tito’s Vodka
ADDITIONAL 2023 PROGRAMMING
This year, Faena Art presents a roster of dynamic, interactive programming at the Faena Art Project Room. Currently on view in the Faena Art Project Room from April 28 to July 15, Miami-based interdisciplinary artist Anabella Bergero presents Heart of Community, an interactive exhibition that invites the South Florida community to celebrate collective acts of creation with programs that include hands-on tie-dye workshops, live podcast recordings, and an open panel about the crossover between art and fashion.
Additional Project Room exhibitions open to the South Florida community will include São Paulo and Basel-based artist Paloma Bosquê’s summer residency that will lead into a fall exhibition that meditates upon the local environment as well as Miami-based artist Kelly Breez’s playful and immersive installation during Miami Art Week 2023.
For additional details on Faena Art’s 2023 programming, please visit: https://www.faenaart.org/.
LINK TO DOWNLOAD HI RES IMAGERY
Sonnet 18: Fundraising Spring Dinner
https://bfa.com/events/39462/share/faenaart_js
PHOTO CREDIT: Photography by Joe Schildhorn/BFA. Courtesy of Faena Art.
https://bfa.com/events/39465/share/faenaart_dz
PHOTO CREDIT: Photography by Diane Zapata/BFA. Courtesy of Faena Art.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xnpku77bs23ujem/AABFFNaMj0cb-btxPhxmy5_Oa?dl=0
PHOTO CREDIT: Photography by Oriol Tarridas. Courtesy of Faena Art.
About Faena Art
Faena Art is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that commissions, produces, and houses cross-disciplinary artistic experiences. A catalyst for innovative, site-specific, and immersive practices, Faena Art bridges the popular and the experimental making art accessible to all. Faena Art fosters new models for social interaction transcending the traditional boundaries of art, science, philosophy, and social practice.
For additional information about Faena Art please visit: https://www.faenaart.org/.
Follow @FaenaArt on Instagram and Facebook.
#FaenaArt
Faena Art Project Room
3420 Collins Ave
Miami Beach, FL 33140
About Jim Denevan
Jim Denevan is a world-renowned American artist who interacts with the earth’s topography to create entirely site-specific works in sand, earth, and ice, which can span miles.
Ephemeral in nature, the near meditative practice is the purpose for Denevan, who relying on intuition and parallax over measurement aids, creates mathematically and geometrically complex compositions and leaves them prone to the tides, winds and seasonal progressions.
Unexpectedly confronted with the works in a natural setting, viewers are invited to interact with art beyond institutional walls.
Denevan has been commissioned to create land drawings across the world, including for Desert X AlUla in 2022, and documentation of his work has been featured in the Vancouver Sculpture Biennale,Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Peabody Essex Museum, MoMA/PS1 and Christie’s.
In 1999, he founded Outstanding in the Field, a radical reconceptualization of the dining experience at the forefront of the sustainability movement that has gained global cult status