Sharon Stone Hosts The Photo15 AIDS Monument Benefit and Photography Auction at Milk Studios In Hollywood

Last night at Milk Studios, Photo15 a live auction benefit, was held for the creation of the West Hollywood AIDS Memorial. For the benefit, dozens of the most iconic photographs from the past 50 years were donated by some of the art worldโ€™s greatest juggernaut photographers. Works by Jack Pierson, Herb Ritts, Olivier Zahm, Ellen von Unwerth, Katherine Opie, and many more were represented, and some of the most philanthropic buyers were there hoping to take home a piece of the action. Preceding the live auction, Sharon Stone gave an emotional and sobering speech about the AIDS epidemic and what it has taught us about humanity. In it she says, โ€œThis is not a lesson weโ€™re just learning in the AIDS community โ€“ itโ€™s a lesson we are learning about humanity. When we judge, when we turn our backs on each other, when we turn away from anyone in need, we have a global crisis.โ€ Indeed, for this event to happen on the same day as a mass shooting in Oregan, we are once again reminded of the obligation we have to band together and put an end to our most deadly manifestations. Last night, hundreds of Angelenos came together to build awareness and honor those who have suffered from the tragedies of the AIDS epidemic. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Macho Mel: Read Our Convo With the Endlessly Fascinating Mel Shimkovitz On Trans Vampires, Meeting William Burroughs, and Making It In Hollywood →

In the following interview, we have a long chat with Mel Shimkovitz about Trans vampires, her Zelig-like position in the music, art and Hollywood worlds, and the mediaโ€™s sudden shift in focus toward the lives and rights of the LGBTQ community. Click here to read the full convo. 

The Queen Of Punk Has Died: Read Our In-Depth Exploration of The Incendiary Life and Times Of Edwige Belmore →

Edwige Belmore, โ€œthe queen of punkโ€ has died at the age of 58 in Miami. A great many things can be said of Belmore and yet it seems that the complexity of her journey through life remains all too mysterious. What we do know is that she personally touched the lives of some of the greatest cultural influencers of the 20th century, from Helmut Newton to Andy Warhol. Her life was a beautiful rags-to-riches-to-rags tale of heartbreak and obscurity. From her early years estranged from family to being discovery by the world of high fashion and art, to the end of her life as the resident artist and landscaper at the Vagabond Hotel in Miami. Her LinkedIn account lists โ€œlandscaping hoboโ€ and โ€œpalm tree studiesโ€ as her duties. There is certainly no way to encapsulate all of the moments of her life in a meager list of 10, but since weโ€™ve attempted to all the same since everyone loves a listicle. Click here to read 10 things you need to know about Edwige Belmore. 

Daisuke Yokota "Color Photographs" Is The Acclaimed Japanese Artist's First Exhibition In the U.S.

Harperโ€™s Books, in conjunction with Flying Books, Tokyo, presented an exhibition of new work by Daisuke Yokota over the weekend. Color Photographs marks Daisuke Yokotaโ€™s first exhibition in the United States. Celebrated internationally for his interdisciplinary and energetic approach to art and bookmaking, this show will focus on the artist's experiments with color photography, a body of work distinct from the black and white images, zines, and books for which he is known. With this series, as Yokota explains, he โ€œtried not to take pictures,โ€ and instead sought to โ€œdraw out the physical aspect of film.โ€ Yokota layered sheets of unused large format color film and applied unorthodox developing methods before scanning the results. Here, documentation is replaced with darkroom alchemy in order to show that the essence of photography rests not necessarily with the camera, but in film itself. You can also purchase a signed first edition monograph featuring these magnificent color photographs. This exhibition will also be view at Harper's Books in East Hampton from September 26 to December 1, 2015. photographs by Adam Lehrer

#YESALLWOMEN Art Auction and Fundraising Event Hosted by Rose McGowan @ Dilettante

Hosted by Rose McGowan, the #YESALLWOMEN campaign (spearheaded by Jessie Askinazi) held a silent auction, exhibition, and evening of performances fusing art and activism, to benefit the East Los Angeles Women's Center, whose programs supported 8,300 Los Angeles women, girls, and families affected by violence last year. Featuring renowned and emerging women in contemporary art reflecting on gender equality including: Barbara Kruger, Kim Gordon, Xaviera Simmons, Rain and Summer Phoenix, Kathleen Hanna, Drue Kataoka, Amanda Demme and more. You can donate to the #YESALLWOMEN campaign here. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Heaven On Earth: Read Our Exclusive Interview With Artist Jack Pierson On Tomorrow's Man and Contemporary Gay Life →

Jack Piersonโ€™s art is dangerous and seductive with the lure of a sordid kind of glamor. Close your eyes and imagine a motel with a blinking vacancy sign. Youโ€™re on the edge of the desert and itโ€™s 110 degrees in the pitch-blackness. Indeed, he is an enigmatic artist with a sense of hopeless romanticism โ€“ his work screams this tortured longing. Over the last few decades, Piersonโ€™s art seems to get cooler and cooler โ€“ there is a distinctly dreamy and quixotic quality to all of it: the photographs, the collages, the text based works that incorporate rusty and discarded signage and his beloved artist books. Officially launching today at the New York Art Book Fair MoMA PS1 is the third installment of Piersonโ€™s highly acclaimed and groundbreaking publishing project Tomorrowโ€™s Man. Click here to read our exclusive interview with Jack Pierson. 

Inside Marc Jacobsโ€™ Incredible Party To Celebrate the Launch of Chris von Wangenheim's Gloss

Marc Jacobs threw a raucous party for the late Chris von Wangenheim's monograph, entitled Gloss, at his store across the street from Bookmarc in New York. The theme: โ€™70s glamour, excess, and gloss. A widely circulated invite called for โ€œfur coats over lingerie, lip gloss, Jerry Hall side-swept hair, sequins, gold lame turbans, Patti Hearst symbionese liberation army gear, rogue, rollerina chic, sheer harem pants, mini skirts and muscular legs, platinum records as head gear, sequins, Grace Jones butch realness, Gloss-y skin, bleached eyebrows, slits, riding in on a white horse, sequins, sky high stilettos, mirrored aviators, metal mesh, cowl neckline halters, or eyes of Laura Mars chic. No flat shoes. No matte surfaces. No natural looks.โ€ Click here to purchase the book.  photographs by Christian Hรถgstedt

Celebration for The Opening of Mick Rock's "David Bowie: Shooting For Stardust" At Taschen Gallery in Los Angeles

In 1972, David Bowie released his groundbreaking album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. With it landed Bowieโ€™s Stardust alter-ego: A glitter-clad, mascara-eyed, sexually-ambiguous persona who kicked down the boundaries between male and female, straight and gay, fact and fiction into one shifting and sparkling phenomenon of โ€™70s self-expression. Together, Ziggy the album and Ziggy the stage spectacular propelled the softly spoken Londoner into one of the worldโ€™s biggest stars. A key passenger on this glam trip into the stratosphere was fellow Londoner and photographer Mick Rock. Rock bonded with Bowie artistically and personally, immersed himself in the singerโ€™s inner circle, and, between 1972โ€“1973, worked as Bowieโ€™s official photographer. Last night, Taschen Gallery in Beverly Hills celebrated the launch of the book and an exhibition of selected photographs from the tome for an exhibition entitled David Bowie: Shooting For Stardust, which will be on view until October 11. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Anish Kapoor's Statement On His Sculpture "Dirty Corner" That Has Been Vandalized By Antisemitic Right-Wing Royalists

This is the second time a public sculpture by the British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor has been vandalized. This time, it's a lot more sensitive, especially in the light of European refugee crisis and a seemingly worldwide paranoia and xenophobia. The 230-foot sculpture, entitled Dirty Corner, caused a stir when it was erected in Versailles and the artist alluded that it "evoked the vagina of the queen." In this instance, Kapoor has decided to leave the anti-semitic, royalist text as a rebellion to the perpetrators. 

Once again my work Dirty Corner has become a receptacle for the dirty politics of anti-Semitic vandals, racists and right-wing royalists. The vandalised sculpture now looks like a graveyard, the stones are now gravestones marking the ruinous politics of fundamentalist bigotry. Dirty Corner allows this dirty politics to expose itself fully, in full view for all to see. At this time, when we need to have compassion for the thousands of refugees on the road in Europe, the anti-Semitic, racist attack on Dirty Corner at Chateau de Versailles in Paris, brings to the forefront the intolerance and racism in our midst. Dirty Corner has become the vehicle for the expression of our anxiety of "the other" and emphasis that Art is a focus for our deepest longings and fears. It is urgent that we show our solidarity with the oppressed the downtrodden and those of our brothers and sisters in need. As the artist I have -for the second time- to ask myself what this act of violence means to my work. The sculpture will now carry the scars of this renewed attack. I will not allow this act of violence and intolerance to be erased. Dirty Corner will now be marked with hate and I will preserve these scars as a memory of this painful history. I am determined that Art will triumph. text by Anish Kapoor