International Art Stars Embrace Rothko Chapel’s Inspirit Night In Houston With High-Stakes Collecting Sizzle

Art and activism were on the menu when Houston’s Rothko Chapel unfurled its annual Inspirit evening.

Taking the stage at The Astorian before the seated dinner by Jackson & Company were international art stars Shepard Fairey of Obey Giant and Obama Hope renown, whose tagline is Manufacturing Quality Dissent Since 1989; and Houston’s own Trenton Doyle Hancock, fresh off his acclaimed New York Times-reviewed Jewish Museum show where his canvases dialogued with Philip Guston’s paintings of Klan figures. Texas Southern University museum director and art historian Dr. Alvia Wardlaw moderated.

The night supported the Rothko Chapel’s mission while amplifying its legacy as a sacred space for contemplation, connection and community engagement.

Adding high-stakes collecting sizzle was a museum-level contemporary auction overseen by McClain Gallery, packed with works from Houston and international notables including Aaron Parazette’s unique Rothko-text inkjet drawings and Cuban conceptual talent Reynier Leyva Novo’s work on paper featuring leaves gathered around the chapel. Top lot honors went to works by Bernar Venet, Kiki Smith and Texas native son John Alexander (now based in New York and Amagansett).

Adding to the bottom line were once-in-a-lifetime auction experiences including a guided Rothko exhibition tour and private patron dinner at the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence and A Sabbatical for Your Soul spun around the Dora Maar Cultural Center in the south of France.

And this night for the Chapel saw green, raising $449,000 for the cause. That total included the art auction’s impressive haul of more than $167,000, aided by Aaron Parazette’s special edition Vérité prints (which alone raised more than $15,000).

PC Seen: Keeper of the flame, the late Mark Rothko’s son Christopher Rothko and wife Lori Cohen, in from New York; chairs Cullen Geiselman Muse and Robert Muse; the Rothko Chapel team led by director David Leslie, with Thuy Tran and Will Davison; board chair Troy Porter with wife Christina Porter; Sanford Dow; Bruce Eames; Virginia and Lee Lahourcade; artist Andrea Bianconi, in from Italy; Poppi Massey; Jan Bres; Annabel Massey Florescu and Alex Florescu; Alecia Harris; Jessica Phifer; and Linbeck Group’s Virginia Reynolds.

Also sighted: Art conservators Jill Whitten and Rob Proctor, whose firm has stepped up to restore hurricane-damaged Rothko canvases; Untitled Art, Houston fair director Michael Slenske; Ellen Susman; McClain Gallery’s Robert McClain with colleagues, auction chairs Sharon Lott Graham and Hélène Schlumberger, and Charlotta Hill; Judy and Scott Nyquist; Justice Margaret Poissant; Chandos Dodson Epley; Allison Lott; Bennie Flores Ansell and David Ansell; Melissa Richardson Banks; gallerists María Inés Sicardi, Heidi Vaughan, and newly minted Laura Burton; Olive Hershey and A.C. Conrad; Michael Piana and Andy Weber; Hotel Daphne’s Ben Ackerley; Sharon Engelstein; and auction artists including Alton DuLaney (whose ART Stop sign stopped traffic), Cruz Ortiz, and Bradley Kerl with wife Whitney Radley.