Bidding Now Open For Watermill Center's 26th Annual Art Auction and Benefit, ‘Tabula Rasa'

The Watermill Center’s 26th annual summer benefit and auction, “Tabula Rasa,” will feature more than 100 artists who work in photography, painting, mixed media, sculpting and more. The event is Saturday, July 27, at the center in Water Mill, but auction bidding opened on Artsy, an online art platform, on July 9.

“Collectors are able to place bids online prior to, and during the event,” Brian O’Mahoney of the Watermill Center explained in an email. “Artsy will be onsite during the event, making sure online bids are considered amongst bids placed live. We’ve been working with Artsy for the past few years.”

The Watermill Center, founded in 1992 by avant-garde director Robert Wilson, is a laboratory for arts and humanities. The center hosts a number of artistic and educational programs, including the International Summer Program, which invites artists across the world to participate in collaborative projects, to work with established professionals in the performing arts world and to build relationships with other artists over the course of six weeks.

Contributing artists for “Tabula Rasa” include Tara Lewis, Iwajla Klinke, Lizzie Gill, Emily Furr and Pacifico Silano. Ms. Lewis is offering a commissioned portrait T-shirt painting valued at $25,000, and the highest bidder will receive a custom oil painting by Ms. Lewis. Ms. Klinke has a print titled “Schleifer Bescherkind” from 2018 valued at $7,500 up for bid. Ms. Furr is offering an oil-on-board titled “Belt Melt 2” from 2019, valued at $10,000. Ms. Gill has her own work for bid, which is an oil and mixed media on canvas titled “Summer Solstice” and made in 2017. Mr. Silano contributed his 2019 work “Time is an Ocean,” which is valued at $2,500.

Tickets to "Tabula Rasa” are available at watermillcenter.org and start at $650. The event, beginning at 6 p.m. and ending at midnight, will feature performances and art installations, a silent auction, dinner during a live auction by Simon de Pury and an after-party with dessert, dancing and a DJ set.

“The event is always exalted as the most engaging and entertaining benefit during the Hamptons’ summer season,” Mr. O’Mahoney said. “This is largely in part due to our team’s commitment to keeping the artistic aspect of the evening fresh and changing from year to year, as well as us constantly looking for new ways to improve the event.”