
MCA Artists Ball 2024
Over 250 art buffs attended MCA Artists Ball, honouring Shaun Gladwell and raising crucial funds for the Museum’s public access programs.
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From the outset, it was never going to be an average night at the museum. Guests arriving at the Museum of Contemporary Art last Saturday walked a black carpet lined with leather-clad bikers in helmets—an image that suggested a casting for a Daft Punk music video. Beyond the photographers’ area, a group of skateboarders were getting serious air on a half-pipe that had been set up for the evening. Against the backdrop of Sydney Harbour, it made for a gravity-defying image that mesmerised the passers-by on the foreshore who had stopped to gawk.

While they weren’t landing Ollies and Half-kicks, the festively attired guests (the dress code for the evening was “creative couture”) were performing tricks of their own, zigzagging and air-kissing their way through the throng who had turned out to support MCA’s second ever annual Artists Ball. Not a drop of Champagne was spilled.
Once inside, the video displays encircling the dining area eliminated any questions they may have had about the evening’s disaffected youth as spectacle.
The artist being feted, Sydney-born Shaun Gladwell, works across a range of media, from painting and photography to installation and performance, but he is best known for his videos installations concentrating on bodies in motion. One of his most renowned works, Storm Sequence (2000), features the artist—an accomplished freestyle skateboarder in his own right—twisting grinding on his board on a concrete ledge at Bondi Beach.

Hosted by the inimitable artist Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Monika Tu also graced the podium in her role as first time MCA Art Ball auctioneer, effectively slaying her task of fund-raising for the occasion. On the night she helped to raised $1.1 million in funds thanks to the room’s generous guests.

Performances, food and music all lived up to the highjinks. Newly appointed resident chefs at the MCA, The Big Group from Melbourne, even had some fun with the entrée, presenting their first course in a traditional Chinese take-away box.


Attendees included MCA Chairman Lorraine Tarabay and Nick Langley, Nick Tobias and Dana Lewis, Luke Sales, Anna Plunkett, Amber Keating-Symond, Tim Olsen and Tottie Goldsmith, Louise Olsen and Stephen Ormandy, and Hayley and James Baillie.
By our count there were no skating related injuries to report at the end of the night (though a few of the revellers may have sported bruises of a different sort the next day). A rad night by any other name.




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