Absolut Elyx & Water For People Launch Philanthropy Benefit with Sean Kelly & Jerome Sans at Art Basel, Miami Beach

Paddle8 To Auction Antony Gormley Sculpture at an Exclusive Gala Featuring Special Performances at Delano South Beach

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Nov 19, 2015, 08:07 ET

NEW YORK, Nov. 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Absolut's luxury vodka Elyx and non-profit organization Water For People will celebrate their partnership on the opening night of Art Basel, the world's premier art fair, at the exclusive art-deco Delano South Beach. Pioneering gallerist - Sean Kelly, world-renowned art curator - Jerome Sans, Paddle8 cofounder and art-world disrupter - Alexander Gilkes, international marketer and Absolut Elyx CEO - Jonas Tahlin and Water For People's CEO - Eleanor Allen will co-host the outdoor gala, featuring a barbecue and bespoke cocktails on Thursday, December 3. During the event, guests will have the opportunity to view a sculpture created by artist Antony Gormley, which will be sold to raise funds for Water for People by online auction house Paddle8.

Widely acclaimed for his sculptures, installations and public artworks that investigate the relationship of the human body to space, Antony Gormley is a world-renowned artist. The auction of Gormley's sculpture will begin on Tuesday, November 24 and conclude on Wednesday, December 9. Two experiential lots - a private group tour of the Sean Kelly Gallery and a cocktail class at the new brand home, the Elyx House, in New York – will also be up for auction. The celebration is part of a five-year partnership between Absolut Elyx and Water For People to provide safe water to more than 100,000 people worldwide. Proceeds from the auction could provide over 10,000 people with access to safe water for generations to come.

The event will also feature an exciting music line-up with a DJ set from Jasmine Solano and a live performance by Elliphant. Jasmine Solano's solid track record includes soundtracks for New York Fashion Week runway shows and the MTV World's Scratch the Surface show that she produced and hosted. Swedish buzzworthy artist Elliphant has already amassed an impressive 40 million+ Spotify plays, 28 million+ video plays and an incredible 55k+ Shazam tags. She has worked with Grammy Award nominees and winners Skrillex, Dr. Luke, Diplo, Major Lazer and Joel Little, the man responsible for producing Lorde's critically acclaimed debut album.

"We are thrilled to partner with a host of luminaries for the benefit at Art Basel to raise awareness of the global water issue," said Jonas Tahlin, CEO of Absolut Elyx. "Through art, we hope to inspire others to participate in this global dialogue in putting an end to water poverty within our lifetime. Our partnership with Water for People, Sean Kelly, Antony Gormley, and Jerome Sans will shine a spotlight on the campaign while raising money to affect real change."

"I'm delighted to be co-hosting this extraordinary event supporting Jonas Tahlin, our colleagues at Absolut Elyx and Water For People," said Sean Kelly. "With the proceeds raised from the auction of Antony Gormley's iconic sculpture, I'm certain this initiative to bring clean, safe drinking water to those who need it most will be a huge success. Antony and I applaud Elyx and Water for People for this outstanding partnership."

The philanthropy partnership with Water For People launched in September. For every bottle of vodka sold, Elyx will provide access to one week of safe water (140 liters) to someone in need through Water For People's work; for every copper pineapple drinking vessel sold, access to one month of water (560 liters) will be provided. Elyx's new pop-up water truck and copper pineapple boutique will conclude its three city tour in Miami following stops in New York and Los Angeles during Art Basel.

Social Media Information:
Absolut Elyx: Instagram /Facebook
Water For People: Instagram /Facebook /Twitter
Partnership Hashtags: #DrinkWithIntegrity #LuxuryOnTap

ABOUT ABSOLUT ELYX
Absolut Elyx is a new definition of luxury vodka, built on the principles of quality, integrity and true craftsmanship. Every drop of Absolut Elyx is made with soft winter wheat from a Single estate, Rabelof, in Southern Sweden. The wheat is then manually distilled in a vintage copper column still from 1921. The still, operated by hand by a select few, is made entirely of copper. The result is an award winning vodka with a rich and exceptionally smooth mouth feel.

ABOUT WFP
Water For People is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to providing access to improved water and sanitation systems and services in developing countries. By working with local governments, the private sector, and partners, Water For People ensures that everyone in a specific region has these basic needs met forever. This innovative approach reaches every family, every school, and every clinic, catalyzing transformative change for better health and economic development to occur globally.

ABOUT ANTONY GORMLEY
Born in London in 1950, Antony Gormley has had a number of solo shows at venues including the Forte di Belvedere, Florence; Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil; Deichtorhallen Hamburg; State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg; Kunsthaus Bregenz; Hayward Gallery, London; Kunsthalle zu Kiel; Malmo Konsthall; and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen. Major public works include the Angel of the North (Gateshead, England), Another Place (Crosby Beach, England) and Exposure (Lelystad, The Netherlands). He has also participated in major group shows such as the Venice Biennale and Documenta 8, Kassel, Germany. Gormley won the Turner Prize in 1994 and has been a member of the Royal Academy since 2003. He was made an Officer of the British Empire in 1997 and knighted in 2014. Antony Gormley is represented by Sean Kelly Gallery, New York. For more information, please visit antonygormley.com.

ABOUT SEAN KELLY
Founded in 1991, Sean Kelly has established a reputation for diverse, intellectually driven, unconventional exhibitions and a commitment to important, challenging contemporary art. In 2012, Sean Kelly moved from Chelsea to a 22,000 square foot space at 475 Tenth Avenue in a historic 1914 building, enabling the Gallery to mount increasingly ambitious, museum-quality exhibitions to great critical acclaim. The Gallery's roster of artists include such notable figures as Marina Abramovic, Candida Hofer, Joseph Kosuth, Antony Gormley, the estate of Robert Mapplethorpe, Mariko Mori, Alec Soth, and Kehinde Wiley, among many others. For more information, please visit skny.com

ABOUT PADDLE8
Paddle8 is the leading secondary marketplace for art and luxury collectibles worldwide. Breaking down many of the traditional barriers to art dealing and collecting, the company offers both veteran and novice investors or collectors a seamless online process to discover, sell and purchase art works, furniture, jewelry and luxury collectibles through for-profit auctions, non-profit auctions and private sales. Servicing a community of more than 500,000 collectors worldwide, Paddle8 combines the taste and trust of a traditional auction house with the efficiency and global reach of the Internet to create a destination that makes it simple for collectors to buy and sell. Led by co-founders Alexander Gilkes, Aditya Julka, and Osman Khan, Paddle8 was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in New York, with additional offices in Los Angeles and London. Paddle8 is funded by the investors behind Uber, Vimeo, Buzzfeed, Paperless Post, Warby Parker, and Bonobos, among others, as well as art-world insiders including Rolf Sachs, Stavros Niarchos, Damien Hirst, Jay Jopling and David Zwirner.. For more information, visit Paddle8.com.