NEW YORK, NY.- Renowned American artist Robert Longo has mobilized 60 artists to donate artworks for a special benefit exhibition supporting Guild Hall, the historic multidisciplinary center that has long served the artist community of Long Island’s East End. In response to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, All for the Hall includes painting, sculpture, photography and new site-responsive installations by such artists as Laurie Anderson, Philippe Cheng, Jeremy Dennis, Eric Fischl, Rashid Johnson, Shirin Neshat, Enoc Perez, Dorothea Rockburne, Ugo Rondinone, Clifford Ross, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith, Karin Waisman, and Robert Wilson, among many others. The museum exhibition will be on view at Guild Hall from August 8 through December 31, 2020, with a corresponding virtual gallery posted on the institution’s website. All works are available for purchase at accessible price points starting at $500, with all proceeds benefiting Guild Hall.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Guild Hall had planned a solo exhibition dedicated to Longo this summer. As the scale and impact of this crisis became known and Guild Hall was forced to cancel its annual Summer Gala and Auction, Longo suggested postponing the exhibition and leading this alternative fundraising initiative, alongside Guild Hall’s Museum Director and Chief Curator, Christina Mossaides Strassfield, who is curating the exhibition. The exhibition follows a recent stage fundraiser that was also initiated by the artist community, a virtual staged reading of Same Time, Next Year, directed by Bob Balaban and featuring Alec Baldwin and Julianne Moore.

“Artists have always been and always will be our greatest resource and inspiration,” said Andrea Grover, Guild Hall’s Executive Director. “To have so many members of our brilliant East End artist community step in and donate their work to support Guild Hall at this critical time creates a debt of gratitude that is hard to express. It is a demonstration of the power of the arts to ignite civic participation and the power of collective artistic action.”

Longo comments, “As artists we are making a statement with these contributions, supporting the historically important institution of Guild Hall and leading the way for the East End community at large." 

Since it was founded in 1931, Guild Hall has served as a cultural cornerstone of Long Island’s East End and as a resource for the artist communities that have long existed in the Hamptons. The benefit exhibition reflects the commitment and long-standing relationship between the center and area artists that has developed over the years. The artists featured in All for the Hall include internationally renowned artists as well as those with local acclaim, united by their personal connections to East End, having lived, worked, or consistently visited the region.

Highlighted works include:

• A new suite of paintings by Ugo Rondinone, expanding upon his Mattituck Sunset series;




• Study of Angel Wing, a delicate ink and charcoal drawing detailing the outstretched wing of a swan, contributed by Longo;

• Crow Brings Fire, an archival inkjet print by Jeremy Dennis, an artist of the Shinnecock Nation;

• A new watercolor by Alexis Rockman, as part of a series in which the artist uses shipwrecks to explore the impact of world migration, in advance of his solo exhibition at Guild Hall in 2021;

• And a site-responsive installation by Karin Waisman.

Strassfield adds, “Each piece, unique in style and character, exudes the special relation between the artist and their medium. When one looks at the gorgeous gradations of the black and white drawing of Study of Angel Wing by Robert Longo and compare that to elegant curve of Bryan Hunt’s gold-plated Copper Uship , or to the digital portrait by Robert Wilson, one can’t help but be transported to a different realm. It has been a true pleasure, and indeed very moving, to work so closely with each artist in the creation of this benefit exhibition, which is a testament to our close relationships with artists.”

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
John Alexander, Laurie Anderson, Alice Aycock, Jules de Balincourt, Kirsten Benfield, Ross Bleckner, Dianne Blell, Philippe Cheng, Chuck Close, Renee Cox, Jennifer Cross, Jeremy Dennis, Anh Duong, Eric Fischl, Ralph Gibson, Wade Guyton, Michael Halsband, Hiroyuki Hamada, Val Hindra, Sheree Hovsepian, Judith Hudson, Bryan Hunt, Yung Jake, Rashid Johnson, Emilia & Ilya Kabakov, Jon Kessler, Bill Komoski, Robert Longo, Joel Mesler, Steve Miller, Sam Moyer, Shirin Neshat, Paulina Olowska, Dennis Oppenheim, Tony Oursler, Carol Peligian, Enoc Perez, Dorothea Rockburne, Alexis Rockman, Ugo Rondinone, Clifford Ross, Toni Ross, David Salle, Mason Saltarrelli, Matthew Satz, Bastienne Schmidt, Cindy Sherman, Taryn Simon, Kiki Smith, Ned Smyth, Adam Straus, Billy Sullivan, Sara VanDerBeek, Karin Waisman, Nick Weber, Robert Wilson, Lucy Winton, Darius Yektai, Nico Yektai, and Almond Zigmund.