Bob Colacello is the recipient of VAEA’s Páez Medal of Art 2017

Bob Colacello photographed by Jonathan Becker at Buckingham Palace

For his important contribution to the arts and his broad vision of the social and cultural landscape, recording for posterity a unique time in history when high and low aesthetics intertwined as the ultimate expression of human freedom.

About Bob Colacello

Bob Colacello is one of America’s most prominent and prolific biographical writers. As Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair, since 1984, he has profiled more than 100 cultural, social and political figures including King Juan Carlos of Spain, Prince Charles, Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, William F. Buckley, Jr., Amalita Fortabat, Rudolf Nureyev, Liza Minelli, Eli Broad and Balthus.

From 1970 to 1983, Colacello was editor of Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine. His memoir of those years, Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up, is considered the definitive biographical portrait of the Pop artist. His biography of the Reagans, Ronnie & Nancy: Their Path to the White House 1911-1981, has also been widely praised. He is currently writing a second book on the Reagans, covering their White House and later years.

Colacello is also the author of Studios by the Sea: Artists of the East End of Long Island (with Jonathan Becker) and of Bob Colacello’s OUT, a collection of his party pictures from the 1970s and 1980s. His photographs have been exhibited at P.S. 1, the Whitney Museum, the Warhol Museum, Mary Boone Gallery and Stephen Kasher Gallery, among other institutions.

He has given lectures on contemporary culture and politics at the Miami Art Museum, the De Young Museum of San Francisco, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Aspen institute, Goldman Sachs, Christie’s, the Lyford Cay Club and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, among other venues. He has appeared in documentaries on Andy Warhol, Nancy Reagan, Robert Wilson, Yves Saint Laurent, Doris Duke, Diana Vreeland, Giovanni Agnelli and Studio 54, among other subjects.

In 2017, Colacello curated his first art exhibition, The Age of Ambiguity: Figurative Abstraction/Abstract Figuration, at the Vito Schnabel Gallery in St. Moritz, Switzerland. It included works by Jean Michel Basquiat, Jeff Koons, Sterling Ruby, Rashid Johnson, Jacqueline Humphries and Jeff Elrod, among others. He serves on the board of the Foundation of Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE), the President’s Council of the New York Academy of Art and the National Advisory Council of the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA).

Colacello received a BSFS degree from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in 1969 and an MFA in film from Columbia University Graduate School of the Arts in 1971. He was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1947, and lives in Long Island.

The Páez Medal will be bestowed to Bob Colacello in a ceremony during VAEA’s Annual Benefit Gala on December 18^th 2018 in the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, New York City. The VAEA’s Annual Benefit Gala is a night to present the Páez Medal of Art and support VAEA’s bi-national mission in the arts celebrating the best of Venezuelan and US cultures.

The VAEA is honored to celebrate the work of Bob Colacello, whose deep understanding of his country’s culture and fertile writing have contributed to the chronicling of America’s contemporary history. The December evening will gather an international crowd to honor Bob Colacello, the first writer to receive the medal, as the 2017 recipient of the prize. This will be VAEA’s 7^th Benefit Gala in New York City.

About the Páez Medal of Art

The Páez Medal of Art is awarded to individuals or groups that have had an impact and contributed to the excellence, growth, support and dissemination of the arts in Venezuela and the United States. American writer Bob Colacello will receive the 2017 honor. Previous recipients include: Venezuelan artist Marisol in 2016, American artist Annie Leibovitz in 2015, Venezuelan Art Advocate Sofía Imber in 2014, American artist Robert Wilson in 2013 and Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz-Diez in 2012.

About VAEA

The VAEA is a NY based 501(c)3 public charity, founded on June 13, 1990 with the mission of promoting the best of Venezuelan and US cultures through bi-national cultural, educational and social programs.

For additional information visit VAEArts.org

For sponsor opportunities and/or early table reservations contact:

Ali Cordero Casal, Chairman, alicorderocasal@vaearts.org +1 3053228899