STAND: The 30th Anniversary Watermill Center Summer Benefit

The Watermill Center​​, an interdisciplinary laboratory for the arts and humanities located in Water Mill, NY, presents STAND, its 30^th anniversary Summer Benefit on Saturday, July 30th. The evening will feature performances, installations, exhibitions, cocktails, and small bites from a local Chef, Colin Ambrose. STAND is presented by Van Cleef & Arpels.

Taking inspiration from English writer, H.G Well’s assertion for renewal “if you fell down yesterday, stand up today”, The Watermill Center acknowledges the international need for solidarity and the unprecedented challenges that many are confronting nationally and globally. STAND at The Watermill Center will be a space where artists from different nations can create; a site where different communities can gather; an event where the audience can become the participant.

The Center will present public exhibitions by various artists at STAND, including Adam Parker Smith’s  outdoor Sarcophagi sculpture series, on view through 2023. Standing upright on marble plinths, Smith’s Sarcophagi are pointedly recognizable in their resemblance to sub-zero sleeping bags. Fabricated over the past two years  in  resin, steel, and urethane, Smith crafted these as a response to global loss, as symbolic gestures of lamentation at a time when public commemorations are conspicuously absent. Japanese artist Tsubasa Kato presents his evolving participatory installation/action Pull and Raise. Kato’s participatory actions transform an audience into a collective participant highlighting the current need for global action and solidarity. Eight cast bronze sculptures produced by artist Liz Glynn, based on Auguste Rodin’s structures from her project, The Myth of Singularity will be on view. Appropriating renowned works by Rodin, including The Thinker, Balzac and The Burghers of Calais, the sculptures, all in different formations, emphasize imperfections and distortion as a form, bringing to mind, wounded androgynous bodies closely tied to the Dada works derived from WWI.

Additionally, STAND opens public presentations by artists Elettra Bottazzi (Italy), Robson Catalunha (Brazil), Deniz Celebic (Turkey), Yeliz Celebic (Turkey), NiNi Dongnier (China), Laurent Le Gall (France), Liz Glynn (United States), Tsubasa Kato (Japan), Christopher Knowles (United States), Taeyi Lim (Korea), Niccolo Masini (Italy), Hollie Miller (United Kingdom), Robert Nava (United States), Adam Parker Smith (United States), Vilim Poljanec (Croatia), Matthew Shipp (United States), Xu Zhen (China), among others. Curated by Robert Wilson and Noah Khoshbin.

The benefit also marks the opening of solo exhibitions by returning alumni artist Christopher Knowles and Inga Maren Otto Fellowship resident Robert Nava. The Center presents a comprehensive exhibition of Knowles’ work throughout the South Wing of the main building, covering all periods of his artistic career, including his drawings, typings, paintings, sculpture, sound work, and performance. Contemporary drawing and animations by Robert Nava will occupy The Center’s Residence Gallery inviting all visitors to engage with the works within the Artist-in-Residence Studio space. Additional summer programming includes an exhibition partnership between Otto Fellow Hank Willis Thomas & For Freedoms at Parrish Art Museum (opening July 24, 2022).

The Annual Summer Benefit unites the worlds of art, theater, music, design, and fashion to raise funds in support of The Center’s year-round programming. Curated by Noah Khoshbin and  highlighting the work of The Watermill Center’s international community, the 2022 benefit and concurrent exhibitions serve as an open door to all audiences and serve to capture the spirit of The Watermill Center’s 30 year artistic mission. 

Food will be provided by Chef Colin Ambrose of Estia’s Little Kitchen.

For more information about The Watermill Center, its Artists-in-Residence, and its upcoming public programs, visit www.watermillcenter.org.