Fashion / Weddings

The Ultimate Marfa Wedding Brings an Art Power Couple Together: Teepees, a Talent Show and that West Texas Sky

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A U-TURN ON SUNSET BOULEVARD, A FAMOUS LIGHT ARTIST, AN INTUITIVE PATRON AND A DINNER PARTY AT CHATEAU MARMONT ALL PLAYED A ROLE IN THE ART-STAR AND STAR-CROSSED ROMANCE OF BALLROOM MARFA CO-FOUNDER FAIRFAX DORN AND PACE GALLERY’S MARC GLIMCHER.

IN THE BEGINNING: A LIGHT SHOW IN L.A.
It all began in the City of Angels, in the summer of 2013, when a collector had the idea that two powerful and passionately engaged people in the art world should meet. But she wasn’t thinking of a love match. Oh, and the reason everyone was there was James Turrell, whose retrospective — one of three concurrently on view across America that year — was being presented by Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

During the opening festivities surrounding the Turrell blockbuster
 and its futuristic beams of light, Austin-based Suzanne Deal Booth played an unsuspecting cupid for the couple: Marc Glimcher, president of the international gallery brand Pace, headquartered in NYC, and Fairfax Dorn, a Texan living between Manhattan and Marfa, who co-founded the acclaimed Ballroom Marfa and is one of the forces behind the unforgettable Prada Marfa installation in the West Texas hamlet of Valentine.

Dorn was being fêted that summer night at a Ballroom Marfa dinner at L.A.’s Chateau Marmont, hosted by Barclay’s. Glimcher, worn out from his artist’s big museum day, almost passed on the invitation.

But at the last minute, on the way to another event at the Peninsula, he did a rapid turnaround on Sunset Boulevard and made tracks to Chateau Marmont. His encounter with Dorn bloomed into an art-world romance that culminated a year later in the proposal.

After the engagement, the couple sought a venue; the groom suggested Marfa.

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After hosting so many exhibitions, screenings, performances and happenings in her adopted hometown, Dorn thought this was too obvious, but she ultimately came around to his perspective.

The wedding weekend was hatched in a short three-month burst of activity after enlisting Houston event planner Richard Flowers of The Events Company to curate nuptials on the ultimate range — the grand panorama of West Texas.

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Following the ceremony, dinner and dancing broke out in a trio of teepees.

WHEN PLANETS COLLIDE
Wedding Date: June 20, 2015, half after 7 pm (during the summer solstice, and the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter).
Venue: Catto-Gage Ranch, a property owned by the bride’s family in the 
vicinity of Marfa.
Event Planner: Richard Flowers of 
The Events Company, Houston.
Caterer: Food Company, Dallas.
Performance Art: An after-dinner awards ceremony, accompanied by talent show and late-night dancing.
Dress: Yippee Ki Yay! with an abundance of boots and moccasins.
Guest List: An intimate selection of 108 guests including art-world notables James Turrell and Los Angeles Country Museum director Michael Govan, with his fashion insider wife, Katherine Ross. As befitting an evening in the environs of Marfa, Flavin Judd was also there.
Bride’s Gown: A lacy Valentino in a romantic shade of dusty rose.
Groom: Valentino bearing hand-embroidered butterflies.
Music: Los Hijos de Frida. The couple discovered the Mexico City-based band at the Jumex Museum, where they performed during an Alexander Calder opening.

ARTISTIC DETAILS
“I came from the east to Marc, who walked from the west, and we met in 
the circle,” says the bride of the couple’s Vedic ceremony, performed in the round in a field as the sun was setting. John Dorn accompanied his daughter from 
the east. Mom Lisa Dorn was there, of course, as were the groom’s folks, Milly and Arne Glimcher. Musical artist Graham Reynolds played al fresco on a spinet piano, set in the middle of the rugged terrain. Guests circled the couple like wagons around an encampment.

 Teepee Nation: What better tented entity than teepees, so perfectly matched to the majesty of Big Bend and recalling Native American traditions. The seated dinner and dancing were held in a trio 
of teepees joined together under the vast horizon of West Texas’ skyscape, a creation to rival Turrell’s most masterful works. Nearby, children had their own small teepee.

• Happily Ever After: Following a honeymoon in Laucala, Fiji, and Amangiri in Utah, the couple returned to their now shared fast-paced art lives: the groom, overseeing 10 Pace galleries worldwide, and the bride, planning Ballroom Marfa’s New York gala, as well as an ambitious new public work in West Texas involving a primordial stone circle with sound
 and topical Ballroom Marfa Dialogues.

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