The Dia Art Foundation’s annual Fall Night was a celebration of Melvin Edwards and Meg Webster. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
For more than half a century, Dia Art Foundation has redefined how art can be supported, exhibited and preserved—particularly when it comes to large-scale, long-term, or site-specific works that fall outside the confines of traditional museums and commercial galleries. On Monday (Nov. 3), its annual Fall Night once again celebrated that mission with an elegant dinner that drew a remarkable number of artists—far more than most New York institutions can claim—reminding everyone that artists remain firmly at the center of Dia’s vision.
Observer spotted an impressive roster of artists shaping the language of contemporary art today, including a particularly smiling and socially engaged Marina Abramović (currently preparing for a major exhibition at the upcoming Venice Biennale), alongside Doug AItken, Tony Cokes, Mary Corman, Jung Hee Choi, N. Dash, Torkwase Dyson, Miles Greenberg, Rachel Harrison, Tehching Hsieh, EJ Hill, Anne Imhof, Suzanne Jackson, Vera Lutter, Nate Lowman, Jill Magid, Tyler Mitchell, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Kent Monkman, Camille Norment, Precious Okoyomon, Nicolas Party, Howardena Pindell, Alan Ruiz, Martha Rosler, Gedi Sibony, Haim Steinbach, Amy Sillman, Pat Steir, Richard Tuttle, Cheyney Thompson and William T. Williams.
The evening began with a cocktail reception and exhibition viewing at Dia Chelsea, where guests admired 12 + 2—Duane Linklater’s first major U.S. commission. His monumental clay animal forms inhabited the space, evoking a primal connection to matter. These gigantic creatures seemed to emerge from an elemental prehistory, before and beyond civilization’s structural and rational constraints. In one of the rooms, a circular wall relief of swirling clay channeled a sense of cosmic gesture—an improvised cosmology unfolding in earthy motion, connecting the microcosm of human making with the broader entropic order that regulates all forces between energy and matter.
The galleries at Dia Chelsea, 537 West 22nd Street, were open to guests for a special viewing of an exhibition of work by Duane Linklater. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Guests then moved to 547 West 26th Street, where long, white linen-decked tables awaited. Dinner began with welcoming remarks from Nathalie de Gunzburg, chair of Dia’s board. Next, a radiant Jessica Morgan, Dia’s director, then took the dais. “Paris was a blast,” she said, beginning her speech with genuine enthusiasm following her just-concluded art week abroad, where she opened “Minimal” at La Bourse de Commerce in Paris. The show, a collaboration between the Pinault Collection and Dia, brought part of Dia’s holdings to Europe for the first time, pairing them with a rarely seen selection of works from the French magnate’s collection. The show celebrated the aesthetics and philosophy of Minimalism while tracing its global evolution and enduring influence.
The night’s honorees, Melvin Edwards and Meg Webster, both hold deep significance for Dia. Their concurrent presentations Upstate spotlight how each pioneering practice anticipated many of today’s most urgent artistic concerns. Artist Sanford Biggers delivered a heartfelt tribute to Edwards, reflecting on their shared Houston roots and the profound emotional and artistic bond between them. His remarks captured how Edwards has imbued the rigorous formalism of his welded metal assemblage—steel, chain, barbed wire, machine parts—with a uniquely human and political charge: abstract forms that pulse with the weight of history and memory, between oppression and liberation.
Next, architect Steven Holl paid homage to Webster, tracing how her practice infused Land Art and process-based sculpture with a prescient ecological consciousness. Merging nature and culture, matter and energy, her works embrace the entropic principle of impermanence and transformation while prompting reflection on sustainability and humanity’s relationship with the earth. Webster’s art—poised between the elemental and the formal, the human-shaped and the naturally evolving—feels particularly timely today, as she enjoys a long-overdue moment in the international spotlight, from Dia’s Beacon presentation to her installations currently on view in the frescoed rotunda of La Bourse de Commerce.
De Gunzburg (with her husband, Charles de Gunzburg) and Morgan were joined by trustees Sandra J. Brant, J. Patrick Collins, Carol Finley, Jahanaz Jaffer, Dana Su Lee, Sara Morishige and Cordy Ryman. The crowd also included collectors, philanthropists and cultural figures such as Amy Astley, Stewart Butterfield and Jen Rubio, Lynne Cooke, Lisa Dennison, Fairfax Dorn, Michael Fisch, Molly Gochman, Steven Holl, Stephanie Ingrassia, Hiroyuki Maki, Courtney J. Martin, Sukey Novogratz, Monique Péan, Loring Randolph, Scott Rothkopf, Axel Rüger, Salman Rushdie, Bernard and Almine Ruiz-Picasso, Olivier Sarkozy, Ivy Shapiro, Allan Schwartzman, Akio Tagawa, Ann Temkin, Helen and Peter Warwick and Sara Zewde.
And of course, no Dia gathering would be complete without members of the gallery world who have long supported the foundation’s mission: Paula Cooper, Lucas Cooper, Arne Glimcher, Alexander Gray, Carol Greene, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, José Kuri, Dominique Lévy, Alex Logsdail, Siniša Mačković, Ales Ortuzar, Sukanya Rajaratnam, Thaddaeus Ropac, Almine Rech-Picasso and Kara Vander Weg were all among the evening’s guests. Below, we offer a glimpse into the night’s most memorable moments.
Precious Okoyomon, Vidar Logi, Miles Greenberg and Marina Abramović
Precious Okoyomon, Vidar Logi, Miles Greenberg and Marina Abramović. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Dominique Lévy and Sanford Biggers
Dominique Lévy and Sanford Biggers. Bre Johnson/BFA.com
Steven Holl
Steven Holl. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Meg Webster
Meg Webster. Bre Johnson/BFA.com
Howardena Pindell and Ann Temkin
Howardena Pindell and Ann Temkin. Bre Johnson/BFA.com
Amy Astley
Amy Astley. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Molly Epstein and Hugh Hayden
Molly Epstein and Hugh Hayden. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Nicolas Party
Nicolas Party. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Maynard Monrow, Julie Hillman and Lucas Cooper
Maynard Monrow, Julie Hillman and Lucas Cooper. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Axel Rüger, Cathy Ho Lee and Scott Rothkopf
Axel Rüger, Cathy Ho Lee and Scott Rothkopf. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Arne Glimcher, Milly Glimcher and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso
Arne Glimcher, Milly Glimcher and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Scott Rothkopf and Shelley Fox Aarons
Scott Rothkopf and Shelley Fox Aarons. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Olivier Sarkozy, Eva Lorenzotti and Charles de Gunzburg
Olivier Sarkozy, Eva Lorenzotti and Charles de Gunzburg. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Eliza Ravelle-Chapuis, Michael Fisch, Brooke Lampley and Sukanya Rajaratnam
Eliza Ravelle-Chapuis, Michael Fisch, Brooke Lampley and Sukanya Rajaratnam. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Li Xin and Thaddaeus Ropac
Li Xin and Thaddaeus Ropac. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Marisa Murillo, Azikiwe Mohammed and Tiona Nekkia McClodden
Marisa Murillo, Azikiwe Mohammed and Tiona Nekkia McClodden. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Akio Tagawa and Karen LaGatta
Akio Tagawa and Karen LaGatta. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Sarah Gavlak
Sarah Gavlak. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
David Israel, Maynard Monrow and Julie Hillman
David Israel, Maynard Monrow and Julie Hillman. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Joost Elffers and Pat Steir
Joost Elffers and Pat Steir. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
William T. Williams and Alexander Gray
William T. Williams and Alexander Gray. Bre Johnson/BFA.com
Paul Richert-Garcia, David Lewis and Barry X Ball
Paul Richert-Garcia, David Lewis and Barry X Ball. Bre Johnson/BFA.com
Dana Lee and Heather Harmon
Dana Lee and Heather Harmon. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Vanessa Yoa and Brandon Chen
Vanessa Yoa and Brandon Chen. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Maynard Monrow and Stephanie Ingrassia
Maynard Monrow and Stephanie Ingrassia. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Alex Magnuson, Jacob Proctor and Jillian Brodie
Alex Magnuson, Jacob Proctor and Jillian Brodie. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Tehching Hsieh and Hiroyuki Maki
Tehching Hsieh and Hiroyuki Maki. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
Jessica Morgan
Jessica Morgan. Madison McGaw/BFA.com
