The annual dinner of the “Friends of the Israel Museum” was held on June 4 at The Lotos Club, one of the oldest literary and arts clubs in American history with a history of 154 years and a Renaissance-style building. The only recipient of the “Outstanding Achievement in Sculpture Art Award,” Li Zhen, received a specially designed crystal trophy from the chairman of the board, David Genser. The exquisite and translucent design of the trophy echoes Li Zhen’s concise and grand sculptures.
Enid Shapiro, the CEO of the “Friends of the Israel Museum,” expressed that Li Zhen’s sculptures break through cultural barriers between East and West. When she first saw Li Zhen’s works, “tears unknowingly welled up, the works brought me unprecedented emotions.”
Facing the CEO’s “sincere confession,” Li Zhen, in his speech, stated that Shapiro “stepped into the solitude of an artist.” Li Zhen expressed, “Large-scale sculptures are a heavy industry of art, so these sculptures of self-healing are like solidified souls sealed by me.”
In an era where AI is making significant strides in the art field, Li Zhen believes AI is “precise” but “lacks emotions,” while art is “free” and “full of infinite imaginative space.”
On that day, both Maya Dvash, the chief curator of the Design Museum in Holon, Israel, and Yotam Yakir, the director of the Haifa Museum of Art, attended the annual dinner of the Friends of the Israel Museum.
To highlight Li Zhen’s contributions in the field of sculpture, the host, The Lotos Club, has a prestigious background. Not only was its current architectural structure built by the Vanderbilt family in 1900, the wealthiest family in the United States, but notable figures such as American writer Mark Twain, author of “Sherlock Holmes” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and artist Rauschenberg have all visited as guests.