In the height of Aspen’s luminous summer, the Aspen Art Museum unveils a gathering that pulses with artistic urgency and elegance: ArtCrush 2025. The beloved Museum’s signature celebration manifests as both a glittering gala on August 1 and an expansive exhibition from July 15-31, honoring those who not only create art but propel the international landscape to blossom.
This year, the spotlight is on Glenn Ligon, who will be awarded the Lewis Family Art Award, a distinction befitting an artist whose riveting text-driven works challenge and reveal. The accompanying online auction is open from July 22 to August 2, while the live auction will be sparked on August 1 at the 20th annual Art Crush gala. Each endeavor channels the power of contemporary art into direct support for the Museum’s future-facing exhibitions and wide-reaching educational initiatives.
Profound Offerings of the Imagination
Reggie Burrows Hodges, “The Offbeat: Cantata,” 2023. Acrylic and pastel on linen, 65 x 85 in.
(165.1 x 215.9 cm), 663⁄8 x 861⁄2 in. (168.58 x 219.71 cm) framed,
© Reggie Burrows Hodges. Courtesy the artist and Karma.
A procession of singular works, offered by some of today’s most compelling voices from around the globe, form the centerpiece of this fundraising phenomenon. On the auction block are painterly expressions from George Condo and cinematic compositions by Reggie Burrows Hodges. Discover the haunting gloss of Issy Wood, sculptural meditations by Ugo Rondinone, the shimmering provocations of Harold Ancart, and many more.
Icons like Alex Katz and Francesco Clemente will offer bespoke experiences which unfurl as intimate, immersive gestures of artistry and connection. In collaboration with Aspen-based architect Sarah Broughton, a curated design segment will marry tactile elegance with conceptual brilliance, featuring works by Michaela Yearwood-Dan, Anni Albers, Max Lamb, and others.
A Tableau of Wonder
Mary Stephenson, “Twin Shell,” Oil on Linen, 33 3/8 in x 37 1/2 in, courtesy of the artist and
Chapter NY.
ArtCrush’s home, the eminent Aspen Art Museum, transforms for the season into a site of spectacle and inquiry. Within its walls, the ArtCrush auction presentation unfolds as a living salon. Broughton’s meaningful scenography—a fictional collector’s dining room—serves as the backdrop to works that invite new ways of seeing and being.
Partner Christie’s will once again helm the live auction with Adrien Meyer, Christie’s Global Head of Private Sales and Co-Chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art, serving as auctioneer and ensuring fervent support for the cause. Meanwhile, digital bidders may enter this arena via The Auction Collective, where no buyer’s premium serves as a gesture of open arms to seasoned collectors and emerging patrons alike.
In the Afterglow of AIR
DIALOGUE, Adrián Villar Rojas and Álvaro Enrigue.
Adrián Villar Rojas, “Two Suns,” 2015. Unfired clay and cement recreation of David by Michelangelo, blackout curtains, handmade tiles (cement, sand, turba, and pigments) embedded with organic, inorganic, human and machine-made matter collected in New York, Kalba, Rosario and Ushuaia. Courtesy: Marian Goodman Gallery. Photo credit: Jörg Baumann.
ArtCrush follows closely on the heels of the inaugural AIR festival, Aspen Art Museum’s new ten-year undertaking dedicated to radical collaboration, deep inquiry, and art as a tool for future navigation. These events beautifully align as AIR expands the Museum’s purpose and ArtCrush fuels its capacity.
“This year’s ArtCrush comes at a significant moment for the Museum,” reflected Nicola Lees, the Nancy and Bob Magoon Artistic Director and CEO of the Aspen Art Museum. “With our inaugural AIR festival concluding just before this event, Aspen will be alive with artists, leaders, and other innovators–serving as a gathering place beyond the coasts for deep thinkers, as it has for decades.”
“With our inaugural AIR festival concluding just before this event, Aspen will be alive with artists, leaders, and other innovators,”
Nicola Lees
“Our ArtCrush auction supports the dynamic programming and bold exhibitions that are core to our mission as a Museum,” Lees added. “We’re grateful to our co-chairs for their partnership in shaping this year’s event and for helping to bolster our ongoing commitment to artists who are advancing the field.”
A Season of Resonance
Sherrie Levine installation. Courtesy of Aspen Art Museum. Photos by Daniel Pérez.
As part of the Museum’s must-see summer program, a quartet of exhibitions fills its galleries with depth and complexity. Embark upon Sherrie Levine’s conceptual echoes, Carol Rama’s bodily poetics, Solange Pessoa’s sculptural mythologies, and Anthea Hamilton’s surreal wit. This beguiling constellation of shows stretches from the 1930s into our collective now, offering viewers a lens through which to contemplate time and identity.
Gaetano Pesce,
“My Dear Mountains,” 2022,
Installation view at Aspen Art Museum,
Courtesy the Artist,
Photo Adrianna Glaviano,
Project supported by the Italian Council (2020).
