Slowly but surely the annual soirees are making their way back to the social calendar after the pandemic hiatus. (What, you thought we’d stick to Zoom galas?) Tuesday night it was the Whitney Art Party’s turn, back in full swing inside the museum after two years away.
Having done away with the seated dinner that previously opened the night, what remained was just the party, which was what most of the younger crowd was always interested in anyways. Inside the museum’s entrance the number of PR staffers nearly matched attendees who had arrived for the VIP cocktail hour, before the party opened to the rest of the crowd at 9 p.m.
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Ashley Graham, Rebecca Hall, Rachel Rossin and Morgan Spector served as VIP co-chairs, with Graham sporting a slinky black one-shoulder gown by evening sponsor Nili Lotan (the designer herself was also in attendance). Graham’s understand black number was in the minority, as many guests took the occasion of an art party to don their most, ahem, creative looks, while a select few embraced the invitation’s call to dress like one’s zodiac sign. A pair paid homage to the Taurus sign by sporting a pair of horns, a few star-print crowns were spotted, etc.
Journalist and “Bling Empire: New York” cast member Blake Abbie was taking in his first Art Party, adapting to suddenly being in front of the microphone instead of behind it.
“It’s very strange to be talking about myself. I had an hourlong interview with the Toronto Star today which is crazy,” Abbie said in the entry hallway. “But it’s been really great. There’s been such great reception to the show — of course, there are always criticisms about it, but we didn’t see the edit before it came out so as a viewer, watching it I’m like ‘Oh!’ It’s different, it’s engaging — at least my storyline is engaging. We were able to do something different. And New York is present as a character in the show, which was important for all of us, because we are not L.A. by any means.”
Other guests included Karen Elson, Johannes Hubel, Bach Mai, Gigi Burris, Brooke Wise, Martha Hunt, Mafalda, Kimberly Drew, Katerina Tannenbaum and Tracy Anderson. A few guests made their way to the top level to take in the buzzy Edward Hopper exhibit, but the majority clung to the ground level, sipping Casa Dragones margaritas and dancing to Questlove’s tunes. Not a bad way to spend a Tuesday in January.