NY Auction of Sculptures Benefits MOCA North Miami
Five neon works by Tracey Emin raise $185,000
The auction of five sculptures by Tracey Emin at Phillips has raised $185,000 in support of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), North Miami. The new series of works, titled Loving, were created by Emin earlier this year and transcribe the artist’s handwriting into five vibrant colors of neon. Four of the works were featured in an evening sale in Phillips’ New York auction house, where the top price was $38,500 for Loving (seacrest). Loving (pink), sold as part of the Phillips Contemporary Art Day Sale, commanding a price of $62,500.
The auction of the works for MOCA builds on a longstanding relationship between the artist and the museum that dates back to MOCA’s 1998 acquisition of Emin’s seminal film Why I Never Became a Dancer—the first of the artist’s works to be purchased by an American museum. MOCA opens the artist’s first American solo museum exhibition, Tracey Emin: Angel without You, as part of its Knight Exhibition Series, on December 4, 2013, in conjunction with Art Basel Miami Beach.
“We are deeply grateful to Tracey for this generous gift to the museum, which will support our ongoing programming and educational initiatives, and to Phillips for sponsoring these auctions,” said MOCA’s Interim Director and Chief Curator Alex Gartenfeld. “MOCA is dedicated to spotlighting pivotal artists of our time, and to providing a platform to emerging and established artists who may be underrepresented in the United States. Tracey’s neon sculptures are among the most compelling in her accomplished body of work, and yet have never been comprehensively explored. We look forward to illuminating this ongoing chapter of her career with our upcoming presentation of Angel without You.”
About the Exhibition:
Opening at MOCA North Miami on December 4 during Art Basel Miami Beach, Tracey Emin: Angel without You is the first American museum show dedicated to the acclaimed British artist Tracey Emin, and the first-ever to focus on Emin’s use of neon. Curated by Bonnie Clearwater, the exhibition features more than 60 neon works that encompass two decades of the artist’s career, including a new large-scale neon sculpture, from which the exhibition gets its name, that Emin is creating in MOCA’s courtyard. In conjunction with the exhibition, MOCA has partnered with Fontainebleau Miami Beach to commission Emin to create a limited-edition line of towels, T-shirts, and flip-flop sandals that will display images of Emin’s neon works, and Skira Rizzoli has published a comprehensive book of Emin’s neons, also titled Angel without You.
Tracey Emin: Angel without You has been made possible by an endowment to MOCA established by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The exhibition has received additional support from Phillips, Ethel & W. George Kennedy Family Foundation, Inc. in Memory of Martin Nash, David and Francie Horvitz Family Foundation and the Funding Arts Network.
About the Museum of Contemporary Art
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) is internationally recognized as a force in defining new trends and directions in contemporary art. MOCA presents a continuous calendar of exhibitions and programming, including innovative education and outreach programs that make contemporary art accessible, understandable, and enjoyable to people of all ages. In 2012, MOCA was awarded the prestigious National Medal for Museum and Library Service.
MOCA’s permanent collection reflects significant artistic developments in contemporary art by emerging and established artists from the U.S. and abroad. John Baldessari, Louise Bourgeois, Uta Barth, Hernan Bas, Jose Bedia, John Bock, Teresita Fernandez, Dan Flavin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Pierre Huyghe, Alex Katz, Edward Kienholz, Mariko Mori, Albert Oehlen, Dennis Oppenheim, Gabriel Orozco, Nam June Paik, Philippe Parreno, Enoc Perez, Raymond Pettibon, Matthew Ritchie, Ed Ruscha, Yinka Shonibare, Gary Simmons, and Shinique Smith are among the artists whose works are included in the collection.
For more information, please visit www.mocanomi.org or call 305.893.6211.
About PHILLIPS:
As the only international auction house to concentrate exclusively on contemporary culture, Phillips has established a commanding position in the sale of Contemporary Art, Design, Photographs, Editions and Jewelry. Through the passionate dedication of its team of global specialists, the company has garnered an unparalleled wealth of knowledge of emerging market trends. Phillips conducts auctions in New York and London and has representative offices throughout Europe and in the United States. For more information, please visit: phillips.com.
