NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s and Gagosian announced Art for a Safe and Healthy California, a collaboration presented by Jane Fonda. A curated selection of contemporary artworks donated by the artists and their respective galleries will be sold via auction and private sale with proceeds benefiting the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California.
The sales will kick-off during Christie’s Spring Marquee Week. A special selection of works benefitting the cause will be featured in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale on May 17 and the First Open Online Sale from May 6–21. Christie’s will present works by artists including Charles Gaines, Christina Quarles, Jonas Wood, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Joey Terrill, and Kenny Scharf.
The benefit will continue this summer with an exhibition at Gagosian’s Beverly Hills gallery from July 18 - August 30. Participating artists include: Jackie Amézquita, Andrea Bowers, Sarah Cain, Karon Davis, Matt DiGiacomo, Jules de Balincourt, Olafur Eliasson, Shepard Fairey, Jessie Homer French, Francesca Gabbiani, Nan Goldin, Frank Gehry, Mark Grotjahn, Jennifer Guidi, Alex Israel, Y.Z. Kami, M aka Michael Chow, Marilyn Minter, Richard Misrach, Catherine Opie, Ed Ruscha, Tavares Strachan, and Hank Willis Thomas.
The Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California is a coalition of community groups, doctors, health professionals, California leaders, and now artists taking a stand together in an epic fight against Big Oil to protect California neighborhoods from toxic oil and gas well pollution (www.CaVsBigOil.com). The oil industry has already spent $53 million so far to be able to keep drilling for oil in California neighborhoods, and is currently spending more than $500,000 per week. For more than a century, oil companies have profited off of drilling for oil in California without reasonable safety regulations in place to prevent the spread of toxic air and water pollution. This has resulted in millions of Californians exposed to harmful environmental threats all while in the perceived safety of their own homes—most of which are in low-income communities, and disproportionately affect people of color. Today, nearly thirty thousand oil and gas wells in California are within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, hospitals and other sensitive areas, exposing over 2 million Californians to these dangerous conditions.
