“Toward the Light: Artists for the Ali Forney Center,” an exhibition at David Zwirner gallery in New York, was only on view at the gallery for four days, but during that short time, it raised $950,000 for the Ali Forney Center, a nonprofit that runs a 24-hour drop-in center for queer youth and offers assistance with housing, education, job training, and medical care.
Its curator, art adviser Stephen Truax, initially had the goal of raising $350,000, slightly more than was raised at last year’s benefit exhibition. He more than doubled that amount.
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The previous two iterations of this event were co-organized with Sotheby’s auction house, and were smaller in scope, with six works by six artists available in each sale. Those sales raised $545,000 (in 2023) and $373,000 (in 2024), including fees. This year, Truax told ARTnews, he wanted to partner with a gallery in order to have more control over who is buying the works, and for how much. This shift allowed him to bring in many more artists, including high-profile ones like Ross Bleckner, Marlene Dumas, Jenna Gribbon, Julie Mehretu, and Wolfgang Tillmans.
Truax saw the gallery model as more of a “win-win-win,” benefiting the gallery, the charity, and the participating artists. While most artists donated their work outright, some—about a third of the 37 participants—chose to receive up to 50 percent of the sale of their work. Of the $1.2 million sold, artists received $250,000, with the rest going to the Ali Forney Center. (The gallery did not take its typical commission.)
Artist Doron Langberg organized the 2023 exhibition with Sotheby’s and is a close friend of Truax; they contributed work to each of the three benefit exhibitions as well. Langberg said in a statement, “Coming together with other artists to support our queer community gives me a sense of agency and hope in a time of precarity and helplessness. I’m deeply grateful to the Ali Forney Center for continuing to do their life-saving work despite many obstacles, and would like to thank everyone involved in the creation of this wonderful project.”
