{"id":828659,"date":"2026-11-09T02:38:17","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T02:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/828659\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T02:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T02:38:17","slug":"denis-villeneuve-and-vija-celmins-honored-at-lacmas-art-film-gala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/828659\/","title":{"rendered":"Denis Villeneuve and Vija Celmins honored at LACMA\u2019s Art + Film gala"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If anyone understands how to make something last \u2014 filmmaker Denis Villeneuve said at Los Angeles County Museum of Art\u2019s Art + Film Gala \u2014 it is the artist Vija Celmins<\/a>. Villeneuve and Celmins were the guests of honor Saturday at the starry 15th annual event<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn your work, you stop the seas and the stars long enough for us to truly see them,\u201d Villeneuve said of Celmins during his speech inside a massive tent in LACMA\u2019s backyard. \u201cI have enormous respect for painters and sculptors, and I\u2019ve always felt that cinema is seen as Pop Art. Film carries the burden of being popular in the present, but at the end of the day, the real challenge is to make something that can endure the test of time, like Vija does with her masterful work. So when a museum \u2014 a temple for artists \u2014 welcomes a filmmaker and puts a spotlight on cinema, it means a great deal for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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1. Model and musician Soo Joo Park wore a feathered Gucci gown at the gala. (Gucci has been the event\u2019s presenting sponsor since its inception in 2011.) (Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times) 2. Model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley just walked as a Victoria\u2019s Secret Angel last month, after a 16-year hiatus. (Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times) 3. Model Candice Swanepoel shows off the ethereal silver fringe details of her dress, also Gucci. Swanepoel also recently walked as an Angel in the Victoria\u2019s Secret Fashion Show in Culver City last month. (Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

Celmins, 88, is known for her meticulous re-creations of natural imagery, like night skies, desert sands and ocean waves \u2014 and stars. <\/p>\n

The night was certainly star-studded: Alex Consani, Andrew Garfield, Emily Ratajkowski, Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo, Kim Kardashian, Parker Posey, Salma Hayek Pinault, Sarah Paulson, Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, Tyriq Withers and Viola Davis, among many others, traipsed among Chris Burden\u2019s iconic \u201cUrban Light<\/a>\u201d lamp posts. Other attendees included Al Pacino, Guitarricadelafuente, Anderson .Paak, Anthony Ramos, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ashley Park, Benito Skinner, Brittany Snow, Emma Watson, Gia Coppola, Jordan Firstman and Julia Garner.<\/p>\n

Ros\u00e9 was the night\u2019s musical guest, performing the live debut of her single \u201cNew Trick\u201d<\/a> on a stage below the Geffen Galleries, Matisse\u2019s \u201cLa Gerbe\u201d<\/a> visible through the windows above. <\/p>\n

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Ros\u00e9 performed \u201cNew Trick,\u201d \u201cNumber One Girl,\u201d \u201cAPT\u201d and a cover of the Killers\u2019 \u201cRead My Mind\u201d at the 15th Annual LACMA Art + Film Gala, where she was the musical guest.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Just off the red carpet, Guitarricadelafuente \u2014 who made his feature film acting debut<\/a> in the acclaimed \u201cLa Bola Negra\u201d \u2014 spoke about the relationship between film and the arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think everything is holding hands all the time,\u201d he said. \u201cI originally come from music, but when I make music, I\u2019ve always come from a very visual place, and I think everything is so linked together. Like when I\u2019m writing a song, just two words put in the right place can suddenly be a catalyst for a very powerful image in your mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Art + Film Gala was designed to knit the twin skeins of L.A.\u2019s artistic and film communities closer together \u2014 and to raise money for the museum. This year it raised nearly $7 million (breaking last year\u2019s record<\/a> of $6.5 million) to support LACMA\u2019s initiative to make film more central to its curatorial programming (as well as the museum\u2019s broader mission). Previous honorees Barbara Kruger, Cathy Opie, Ed Ruscha and Helen Pashgian (it was her 92nd birthday) were also in attendance, as well as Lauren Halsey, Mark Bradford and Mary Corse, among many other artists.<\/p>\n

Local elected officials and appointees present included U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove and Rep. Laura Friedman, L.A. County Supervisors Holly Mitchell and Lindsey Horvath, L.A. Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky and L.A. County Chief Operating Officer Joe Nicchitta.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been an unforgettable year at LACMA,\u201d said the museum\u2019s director, Michael Govan, during his own speech. \u201cSame tent, but everything around it \u2014 you\u2019ve seen the little building we built, the David Geffen Galleries<\/a>. It\u2019s a new beginning for LACMA, honestly, and there\u2019s so much more to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

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LACMA director Michael Govan, left, and his wife Katherine Ross, a communications adviser and consultant, pose in front of Chris Burden\u2019s \u201cUrban Light.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Less than a week ago, the museum debuted a new piece of public art, Shio Kusaka\u2019s \u201cBeam,\u201d<\/a> a clay mosaic flying saucer supported by a yellow metal cone of light. Next weekend, Vanity Fair\u2019s first \u201cScreening Room\u201d<\/a> event series will christen LACMA\u2019s Steve Tisch Theater. And coming soon, Diana Thater\u2019s permanent video installation<\/a> will be projected onto the bridge formed over Wilshire Boulevard by the new Peter Zumthor-designed building.<\/p>\n

Co-chairs Leonardo DiCaprio and LACMA trustee Eva Chow<\/a> once again hosted the cocktail party and decadent dinner together, but Chow announced Saturday would mark her final year as co-chair. She estimated that during her tenure the gala has raised close to $60 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have started with an idea and to see it grow into one of Los Angeles\u2019 most celebrated traditions has been one of [the] great privileges of my life,\u201d Chow said. \u201cI leave this chapter with tremendous pride, wonderful memories and above all gratitude. I hope this gala will continue to grow and inspire future generations, bringing together the worlds of art and film for many years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chow first made her name as a fashion designer, and Art + Film\u2019s red carpet (a walkway in front of the \u201cUrban Light\u201d lamp posts) is something of a fashion runway. Halsey sported the Wekafore<\/a> hair salon longsleeve tee<\/a> and transparent trousers over mesh camo shorts, and her longtime partner, Monique McWilliams, wore a sleek galaxy bodysuit. Architect Kulapat Yantrasast towered on clear plastic platform sandals, paired with a bright orange jumpsuit. Publicist and artist Sergio Farias wore a dripping ruby headpiece<\/a>, sparkling silver suit and fluffy scarlet train.<\/p>\n

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1. The contemporary artist Lauren Halsey, right, and her longterm partner Monique McWilliams pose together on the red carpet. (Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times) 2. Architect Kulapat Yantrasast shows off platform sandals with his orange jumpsuit. He also wore a sparkling silver brooch that read: \u201cKulapat, Kulaparty, Kulapalace, Kulaparty, Kulapalazzo.\u201d (Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times) 3. The singer, rapper, drummer and record producer Anderson .Paak poses with an ivory parasol, part of his outfit. (Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

Celmins, ever practical, ever sly, wore an elevated, understated black velvet pantsuit. The writer Rachel Kushner introduced the artist onstage. \u201cIt is tempting to project romantic and cowboy notions of earth and sky and purity onto Vija Celmins, of artist as seer and monk,\u201d Kushner said. \u201cAnd even more romantically, Celmins is unimpressed by our need to fetishize and claim her. She might even heckle me for trying.\u201d<\/p>\n

A short film played, produced by LACMA\u2019s Erin Wright, and took viewers inside Celmins\u2019 New York studio. \u201cWhy did I let them in my studio?\u201d Celmins quipped onstage. Then: \u201cIt\u2019s a pleasure to be here. You guys are just crazy party people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celmins fled with her family to Germany during the Soviet occupation of Latvia, then immigrated to Indiana. She later moved to L.A. to pursue her MFA at UCLA. \u201cAt one point, Los Angeles had a big influence on me,\u201d Celmins said. \u201cWhen I had never lived next to the ocean, and I had never seen the land. … I wanted to be an abstract painter, but it crept into my work. And so California had a really big influence on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Nicole Kidman introduced Villeneuve, having flown 15 hours from Australia to do so despite never having formally met the \u201cDune\u201d director. She cheekily referenced her viral AMC Theatres ad<\/a>, saying she was inspired to make it in order to experience films from the likes of Villeneuve.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis films explore the great mysteries of our existence: time, memory, identity, destiny, the things we cannot explain, and the possibility that there is something that we do not understand, that we will never understand,\u201d Kidman said. \u201cThey are vast, they are mysterious, they are sometimes terrifying, but they are always profoundly human. And what I admire the most, perhaps, is that you have never allowed the scope of your ambition to overshadow the sensitivity of your humanity and your storytelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Villeneuve recognized Celmins, Kidman and LACMA itself. He said one of the most powerful shots he has ever seen was of Kidman as Anna in Jonathan Glazer\u2019s \u201cBirth,\u201d consumed by grief and haunted by surreal possibility. And he noted that LACMA\u2019s James Turrell retrospective<\/a> \u2014 particularly the experience of watching people stand in front of a brilliant, colorful light in silence and hope \u2014 showed him how to direct \u201cArrival.\u201d<\/p>\n

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1. Honoree Vija Celmins and her gallerist Matthew Marks pose together. \u201cPainting is very fluid,\u201d Celmins said in the video short LACMA made for the event. \u201cYou have to paint it, you have to make it stay where it wants to be, you have to beat it up and kill it and do all these things to make a painting say what you feel it should be doing.\u201d (Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times) 2. Anya Taylor-Joy \u2014 who stars as Alia Atreides in Denis Villeneuve\u2019s upcoming movie \u201cDune: Part 3\u201d \u2014 poses with Villeneuve. (Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

\u201cMuseums have always been superfood for me,\u201d Villeneuve said. \u201cEvery time I walk into one, I feel like a vampire. I\u2019m sucking the energy from the walls, and one way or the other, it ends up in one of my films.\u201d<\/p>\n

He ended his speech with a joke that caused the room to erupt in laughter: \u201cAnd to express my gratitude, with the blessing of my new friends at Amazon, I will reveal to you tonight\u2026 who will be the next James Bond,\u201d Villeneuve said, and the room gasped. \u201cThe actor who will play the next James Bond is \u2014 and I will stop right now because Amy Pascal is about to have a heart attack.\u201d<\/p>\n