S otheby’s Contemporary Curated Auction is honored to partner with Truax Art Advisory and Stephen Truax to present Loved by the Sun: Queer Artists for the Ali Forney Center, a selection of works sold to benefit the Ali Forney Center, a not-for-profit that serves L.G.B.T.Q. youth in New York City. Six significant primary market artworks have been donated from the studios of leading contemporary artists, including Katherine Bradford, Doron Langberg, Chris Martin, Justin Liam O’Brien, Ilana Savdie, and Salman Toor. This presentation represents an extraordinary opportunity to buy examples of the most coveted artists’ work, and to support the vital work of the Ali Forney Center.
Committed to saving the lives of L.G.B.T.Q. young people, the Ali Forney Center offers a beacon of hope for the next generation of queer-identified youth. From the Center’s mission statement: “Our goal at the Ali Forney Center is to not only provide food, water, and shelter. Our goal is to transform the lives of these young people so that they may reclaim their lives and never live on the streets again.”
The exhibition is organized by Stephen Truax of Truax Art Advisory, and is the second collaboration between queer-identified artists and Sotheby’s to provide a lifeline to homeless LGBTQ youth and the Ali Forney Center. Last year’s presentation raised over $350,000 in crucial funds to support the Center’s vital work.
Highlights
Founded in 2002 in memory of the late Ali Forney, (a homeless gender-nonconforming youth who was forced to live on the streets, where they were tragically murdered in 1997), the Ali Forney Center in New York City offers housing and services to over 2,000 homeless queer youth, providing food, shelter, access to education, job readiness training, and medical services, therapy, art therapy, as well as a new 24-hour drop in center, where young people can be safe and together during the day, among many other life-saving resources.
The agency has grown from 6 beds in the basement of a church providing a safe space to rest to a wrap-around agency that provides direct services and all of the support necessary for young people to build an independent life.
As the largest agency providing support to LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness, the Ali Forney Center has a national and international scope, providing capacity building and model replication support to agencies and activists around the world.
"It’s profoundly fulfilling to support the Ali Forney Center at this critical time, when our queer community endures such deliberate and harsh attacks. With hostility and fear mounting, it’s easy to feel helpless and lost, unsure of how to direct our efforts amidst the turmoil. The Ali Forney Center offers a clear, impactful way to channel our energies and resist the urge to retreat. It’s through places like this that I’m reminded of the incredible resilience of our community when we stay engaged and unite in our efforts."
"I have always hoped that my work could serve some form of social utility. To facilitate a conversation or maybe make someone laugh. Donating a piece to a charity like The Ali Forney Center is maybe the highest and most meaningful instance of this. I am greatly honored to participate in this year's benefit and that my work will provide some means for homeless queer youth. This work imagines an old friend in his youth as Andromeda from Greek myth; bound and awaiting her demise at the grips of a sea monster named Cetus. The history of queer people is a history of storytellers and myth makers. It is a feature of my practice to spin my life as a thread into a larger tapestry. As a gesture to the future and the past."
“As someone who has traveled across cultures from a society where people like us are bullied and marginalized, my heart goes out to homeless LGBTQIA+ youths. For me, this is the most meaningful cause to contribute to.”
"It gives me hope that queer youth who no longer feel safe in their own homes can find shelter and community at the Ali Forney Center. It’s an honor to support the life-saving work they do, giving kids what was denied them by their families, and what I took for granted growing up: the opportunity to be fully themselves, and be loved for who they are."
"I have been with my life partner, Tamara Gonzales, since the 1980s. We live and make art together in Brooklyn, and at our home and studios in the Catskills, and we are so happy. Because I live, work, and collaborate so closely with my wife Tamara, many people do not know that I identify as bisexual. I spend a few weeks every summer in Cherry Grove on Fire Island, where I make paintings and drawings on my little balcony. It is so important to me to be able to support Queer-identified young people, and the Ali Forney Center, with my painting practice; and it is an honor to show alongside so many other wonderful Queer-identified artists who I admire, like Kathy Bradford, who I have been friends with since she first moved to Brooklyn in the 1980s."
"I was really impressed when I visited the new drop in center at Ali Forney. There was so much space. It seemed so welcoming. And it presented a lot of different projects to participate in for anyone who came over there. It seems to me that anyone who went there could find a community very easily. It's totally set up to facilitate that. That's what impressed me the most. The painting that I am donating, called Gathering Under Full Moon, shows a group of people linked together visually. One can guess that they support each other, and that they are a community. This is something I believe in as much as anything, so I am very glad to be a part of this benefit auction, to help the Ali Forney Center keep making communities, and keep a space open where people can support each other."
The Ali Forney Story, The FRIENDS Project
