Dylan Ellery Anderson, Pablo Cardoza, Megan Olivia Ebel, Alton DuLaney, Janavi Mahimtura Folmsbee at the 2024 Glasstire Party and Auction (Photo by Jenny Antill)
With a night of neon and new-age art, Glasstire lit up its annual party and auction. Literally. The shindig featured glowing decorations and bright outfits at the edgy downtown Houston venue Sharespace.
An impressive 200 people attended, each putting their own spin on the neon chic dress code. Revelers glowed in their unique styles, from blue tutus to bright pink hair. Some creative types even swiped glowsticks from the tables to enhance their outfits.
Meanwhile, Little Kitchen HTX provided a feast of caprese skewers, crab cakes, pomegranate chicken and veggie samosas. Decadent pecan pralines and lemon bars rounded out the spread. Glasstire also created an extravagant French 75 punch for the party.
Artsy Auction Action
Sponsored by Davis Cohen Art and Artist Services, with lead supporters Nora and Bob Ackerly and Scott R. Sparvero, the silent auction featured 45 fabulous lots. These lots were available online a week before the event. As a result, winning bidders represented a wide geographic range, coming from Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and New York.
The top lot, Vincent Valdez’s America’s Finest (2014), went to a prominent Houston collector for $5,000. Other notable pieces included Tom Jean Webb’s Always Growing (2023) and Pat Colville’s Rainless XIII (2014), which both sold to the same lucky buyer.
“We aimed this year to have many works at accessible price points,” Glasstire’s publisher Brandon Zech tells PaperCity. “These pieces saw fierce bidding wars. Some even went well over retail price.”
SHOP
The arty crowd was further energized by a raffle featuring small-scale artworks from Texas artists such as Rebecca Marino, Carl Block, Bill Davenport and Jessica Ninci. The raffle also included Funny Girl tickets at the Hobby Center, courtesy of The Lancaster Hotel and Broadway Across America, plus home goods from Debner. The grand prize was a Glasstire green-colored Vitra Eames Elephant.
Grooving and Glowing With Glasstire
The fun continued when hit the dance floor to the beats of DJ iPod Ammo. He played a mix of new and classic hits, including Beyoncé’s album Cowboy Carter and 1970s rockers Talking Heads.
Afterwards, everyone ventured to the back patio to enjoy Moon Papas Art’s large-scale interactive sculpture. This floor-to-ceiling, winding steel pipe sculpture, adorned with colorful LED lights, delighted visitors as they altered it to match their out-of-this-world outfits.
PC Seen: Glasstire founder Rainey Knudson and Steve Satterwhite; co-chairs Julia Harris and Glasstire board member Dalton Harris, Sarah Labowitz and Peter Molick; Glasstire board chair Kathryn McDougal and Moon Papas Art’s Matt Fries; Houston Arts Alliance CEO John Abodeely; Houston collectors Lee Anthony and Travis Capps, Jereann Chaney; Ruby Project’s Megan Olivia Ebel; Gin Braverman; Mara and Erick Calderon; Sara Carter and Ralph Manak; Houston Center for Contemporary Craft director Leila Cartier and Juan Manuelf Balcazar; Lindsay Davis and Joseph Cohen; DiverseWorks’ Xandra Eden; artist Joey Fauerso and husband, Artpace’s Riley Robinson; Ingrid and Willie Wood; Jenny and Mark Johnson; Jessica Phifer; Houston gallerists David Shelton, Nicole Longnecker, Sharon Graham and Hélène Schlumberger of McClain Gallery, Adrian Page and Lee Steffy of Moody Gallery, Andrew Durham, Heidi Vaughan, Jill McLennon of McLennon Pen Co. Gallery in Austin, and Laura Bledsoe from Foltz Fine Art; and Glasstire Auction artists including Catherine Colangelo, Ken Mazzu, Manik Raj Nakra, Melinda Laszczynski, Sarah Sudhoff, Steven J. Miller, and XZZX (Mariela Gerónima Domínguez Moreno).
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