Artist Rachel Rossin Dazzled Guests of Guggenheim’s YCC Party
In April, for the Guggenheim’s yearly Young Collectors Council Gala, artist Rachel Rossin transformed the Guggenheim into a hybrid virtual environment with its universe of colors and biomorphic shapes. Rossin reshaped the museum’s iconic rotunda into a space that bridged physical and digital dimensions, as stated in the press release “imagining technological melds and communities to come.”
In an interview with Daniel Birnbaum, Rossin said “Virtual reality for me is the intersection of programming games and installation art.” I remember hearing them conversing at Frieze in 2019 in conjunction with Birnbaum’s VR exhibition “Electric” featuring Rossin’s work. The work on view was also exhibited at the Zabludowicz collection. Mastering coding and having created video games, as a programmer, I understood that Rossin pushes the needle in experimentation in virtual reality, digital, and tech-heavy art by destabilizing, hacking, and confounding its architectural framework. Certainly, her complex exploration can only be based on a deep understanding of the technology—however, her work always maintains an artistic sensibility.
Funds from the party—which begins with a dinner in the Wright Restaurant, followed by a larger dance party, the YCC Party—benefit the Young Collectors Council Art Fund. Maryana Kaliner, an entrepreneur, finance professional and founding director of the LES-side gallery FORMah, is a member since 2023. She chose YCC above other patron groups as she “found it unusual that members have a voice in the acquisition process.” She continues: “all of us actively participating in the selection process of the artworks that will join the Gugg’s collection.” During member meetings artworks are presented by the curatorial team and YCC members vote on what to acquire. As Kaliner’s gallery focuses on female artists, she will utilize her YCC votes to make “future acquisitions more focused on female/identifying artists.”
Both members and non-members are invited to attend the YCC Party and notable attendees included YCC cochairs Sophia Cohen, Danny Mapes, Alyssa Yoon, independent curator Tiffany Zabludowicz, whose parents founded the Zabludowicz Collection, artists Joiri Minaya (previously on view in Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility and featured in The Immigrant Artist Biennial Artist 2023), Sandra Mujinga, and Chloe Wise, multi-museum patron Shawn Yang, as well as Rossin’s gallerist Olivia Smith.
In New York, Rossin is represented by Magenta Plains. “This year, we were excited to present a selection of Rossin’s paintings and holographic combines at the Felix Art Fair in Los Angeles,” one of the gallery’s directors Olivia Smith commented to Cultbytes. Magenta Plains mounted their first solo show with the artist in 2021, Boohoo Stamina. In 2023, they announced they would represent the artist following the gallery’s relocation and opened a second exhibition with the artist: SCRY in their new and larger space on Canal Street.
The staging of Rossin’s work, on LG OLED screens, is part of the company’s five-year collaboration between LG and the museum featuring activations, presentations, and an award. In celebration of the 2024 LG Guggenheim Award, the museum’s Deputy Director and Chief Curator Naomi Beckwith, LG Corp’s Head of Brand Management Seol Park, and the LG Electronic’s North America CEO Chris Jung raised a glass to this year’s LG Guggenheim Award recipient, Shu Lea Cheang. Three additional artists will be recognized during the year.
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