MassArt Runs First Hybrid Online Annual Fundraising Event with Bidsquare

Bidsquare is proud to virtually host the 33rd MassArt Auction - a highly anticipated, annual event made fully accessible, online, through two main events: the Live Auction, which will be held on Saturday, April 9 at 8:00 p.m. EDT, and will once again be conducted by Karen Keane, auctioneer and CEO of Skinner, as well as, a Timed/Silent Auction catalog, with online bidding open from March 21, 12pm EDT-April 10, 12pm EDT.

This year's event will be held as a hybrid, where online bidding will run in parallel with in-person live bidding, an aspect which has been missing for the past two years due to the pandemic. MassArt will welcome guests back to the Design and Media Center on MassArt’s campus for the Live Auction on April 9, 2022 where the bidding will commence simultaneously in person and virtually on Bidsquare, register here to participate.

MassArt will welcome guests back to the Design and Media Center on MassArt’s campus for the Live Auction on April 9, 2022 | 8:00 p.m. EDT - conducted by Karen Keane, auctioneer and CEO of Skinner.

For over three decades, the MassArt Auction has served as the College's largest annual fundraiser and New England's biggest annual contemporary art auction. This signature event features an extraordinary array of artwork that continues to attract the most discerning collectors. MassArt Auction proceeds go to scholarships and support for academic programs that directly benefit students in need. 

Bidders can browse and place bids on more than 325 works in a variety of media by emerging to internationally renowned artists. Among the 32 lots in the Live Auction are an artist’s proof of a chair from Wythe & Web, sculptor and MassArt faculty member Matthew Hinçman’s (BFA ‘93) public art project outside the Jamaica Plain Branch of the Boston Public Library; one of Emily Eveleth’s (MFA ‘87) iconic donut paintings; a necklace made of recycled cans and pearls by Eunseok Han; a 3D work by painter Lavaughan Jenkins (BFA ‘05); a photograph by Corinne Spencer (BFA ‘10) from series Collective Flesh about “the black feminine body;” and a painting by new auction artist Shannon Finley. For the first time, the Auction will offer NFTs (non-fungible tokens) in connection with the sale of two works by Live Auction artist Johnny Tang and Silent Auction artist Cindy Sherman Bishop (M ’13). The NFTs will be sold as part of the artwork sale, so collectors only need an NFT wallet in order to accept the NFT, an ideal situation for a collector new to NFTs. Six commissions are also included in the Auction such as a set of handmade woodblock printed throw pillows by Anna Pausch (BFA ‘15) and a dog portrait by Doreen Evangeline.

The 33rd Auction Committee is co-chaired by Daren Bascome (‘93 BFA Graphic Design, MassArt Trustee, and Founder of Proverb brand agency) and Elizabeth Lowrey (‘19 Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, MassArt Foundation Board Member, and Principal and Director of Interior Architecture at Elkus Manfredi Architects). The Auction Committee selected the artwork through a jury process from over 1300 submissions. Auction artists have the choice of contributing 50% or 100% of the sale to MassArt and all proceeds from the event go to MassArt student scholarships and academic programs. The MassArt Auction is the College’s largest fundraising event of the year, having raised over $1 million dollars for the last seven consecutive years. Last year the College debuted a special fundraising component of the Auction called the “Finish Line Fund” to support students in jeopardy of not graduating due to outstanding tuition fees. The fund helped 30 seniors finish their education last year and will continue this year with the goal of supporting even more students.

See the full schedule of events here.

Here are some top highlights from this year's catalogs:

Lot 16, Heather White, Murmuring Brooch, 2015

Heather White is a current professor of Fine Arts 3D at MassArt. White’s work is highly influenced by historical metal objects and ornamentation made for royal figures, non-secular rituals, and military forces such as crowns, brooches, and other forms of adornment. White is a Fulbright Scholar and has exhibited at the Bavarian Association for Arts and Crafts, Munich; the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design England; the Society for Arts and Crafts, Boston; and the Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh. White’s work is held in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC; Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI; as well as numerous private collections throughout the United States and internationally. Heather White is represented by Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge, MA.

Lot 4, Rania Matar, Lara, Koura, Lebanon, 2021

Rania Matar is a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow. Her work has been widely exhibited in museums worldwide, including Museum of Fine Arts and ICA/Boston. It is part of the permanent collections of several museums. She recently had solo shows at Cleveland Museum of Art, and Amon Carter Museum of American Art. She has published four books. Her most recent book, SHE, (Radius Books) has just been released.

Lot 19, David Bates, Sunflowers, 2008

David Bates makes images that reflect the iconography of his Texas surroundings. He employs the use of heavy energetic lines with distinctive and brash colors creating expressionistic images that explode in vibrancy and power. Recognized primarily as a painter, his first print project began at Pace Editions in 2007, which resulted in White Roses, a thirteen-block woodcut that combined his signature black outlines with vibrant colors. Bates’ work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Phoenix Art Museum; the Dallas Museum of Art and others.

Lot 13, Juan José Barboza-Gubo, Desimaginarse Nuestro 3

Juan José Barboza-Gubo received his Bachelor’s degree at Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru. He has received two MFA degrees, one in painting and one in sculpture, both from Massachusetts College of Art and Design where he is now an Associate Professor of Studio Foundation. He has had numerous exhibitions including shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Lima, Peru; Fitchburg Art Museum; the Attleboro Arts Museum; Brattleboro Museum and Art Center; and many more. His work has been featured internationally in galleries and museums in Tokyo, Athens, Italy and Peru. Juan José Barboza-Gubo is represented by Gallery NAGA in Boston, MA.

Lot 21, Sue Oehme, All Our Lost Souls, 2021

The winner of this piece will receive a large-scale site-specific installation comprised of individual paper elements, coated with inks and acrylic, then arranged and attached to the wall with nails and plastic spacers, so the pieces "float" off the surface of the wall. The title refers to the human loss and cost of the pandemic. 

Sue Oehme received a BFA from the University of Michigan, and continued studies at NYU. Her work is represented by and was recently shown at SPACE Gallery in Denver, including three large site-specific installations. Her work is held in the collection of the US State Department, as well as numerous private collections. She teaches at artist residencies across the country and internationally.

Lot 30, Arturo Herrera, Giuseppe, 2012, Edition 29 of 30

Arturo Herrera’s work encompasses a broad range of media. He assembles open-ended landscapes of the subconscious, where cartoon characters, news clippings and other fragments of images and text overlap and recombine. His felt hangings transform outlines of familiar images into sculptural abstractions. Herrera has received many awards, including a Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) Fellowship. He has had solo exhibitions at Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva; Dia Center for the Arts, New York; Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City; among others.

View both Massachusetts College of Art and Design Foundation auction catalogs and register to place your bids, on Bidsquare.com.

*Featured artist biographies and descriptions courtesy of Massachusetts College of Art and Design Foundation auction catalogs.

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