Latin American Art Star Attracts International Power Players to the Ultimate Private Dinner Party: His Statues Are Already Breaking Auction Records

What: Gustavo Vélez exhibition opening

Where: Art of the World Gallery for artist reception, collector dinner afterwards at Yauatcha

PC Moment: A storied international crowd flocked to Art of the World Gallery for the U.S. debut of the Colombian-born sculptor Gustavo Vélez. The artist and wife Andrea Betancour came in from New York for the evening. (Besides Manhattan, Vélez also has studios in Medellín, Colombia, and Pietrasanta, Italy, where most of his marble, bronze, and stainless steel works are created.)

FYI: Vélez’s sculptures recall the columns of Brancusi with their graceful spirals into space, as well as evoking a sense of the organic, particularly present in the geometrically abstract marbles. The Latin-American talent is being closely watched by those that follow the contemporary art market, Vélez is already setting records in important auctions of Latin-American art conducted by the big three – Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips.

Following the formal reception and exhibition viewing, which featured curated passed bites from Yauatcha paired with endless flutes of champagne, the VIPs were summoned to a tony dinner party in a private room at Yauatcha. At the dinner in his honor, Vélez graciously signed copies of his catalog, published by the gallery for this occasion.

Who: Gallery owners and hosts Liliana Molina and Mauricio Vallejo; Consul General of Colombia Miguel Lopez and his wife Olga Lopez; BeDesign’s dashing duo Adrian Dueñas and Marcelo Saenz; designer Anne Breux; Lynn Wyatt toasting with PR pal Mark Sullivan; Natalia and Jason Bainbridge; Marcela Astralaga; Patricia Lessa; Tanya Romero Baca; designer Nina Magon with friend Pushpa Patel; collector and art aficionado Jose Ivo; and Ken Christie, of Creators and Collectors TV, who hopes to film a segment on the gallery.