Eva Chow’s LACMA era ends with a record Art+Film Gala

Eva Chow made the announcement before dessert. At LACMA’s 15th Art+Film Gala on November 7, after fifteen years as co-chair with Leonardo DiCaprio, she said this would be her last. The night raised a record nearly $7 million for the museum’s film work and broader programming. More than 600 guests filled the tent for artist Vija Celmins and filmmaker Denis Villeneuve. ROSÉ performed later and debuted “New Trick” live, as we noted when the booking landed. The news that stayed after the lamps went dark was Chow stepping away.

She spent those fifteen years making art, film, and fashion sit at the same table without anyone looking lost. Born in Seoul as Hee Kyung Chun, she studied watercolor as a child, moved to the United States as a teenager, and ran a New York fashion line under the name Eva Chun before the Mr. Chow years with her husband, restaurateur Michael Chow. The New York Times called her the culture queen of Los Angeles. People kept the line because she could seat François-Henri Pinault beside an artist and keep Gucci on the carpet without turning the museum into someone else’s fashion show.

Michael Govan pulled her in after he took over LACMA. She joined the board in 2008. The museum needed money, and it also needed film back inside its curatorial life. Chow helped shape Art+Film around a simple pair of honors each year, one visual artist and one filmmaker, with a dinner small enough to feel private. Fashion came in as a long partner, not a one-night sponsor. She asked DiCaprio to co-chair. She pitched Gucci in New York. The first gala, in 2011, honored Clint Eastwood and John Baldessari, with Stevie Wonder performing, and raised $3 million. Gucci has been presenting sponsor every year since. From the stage this month, Chow said the fifteen editions have brought close to $60 million into LACMA.

You could see the same mix on Saturday. Rachel Kushner paid tribute to Celmins. Nicole Kidman introduced Villeneuve. The arrivals still happened under Chris Burden’s Urban Light, with Gucci dressing half the room. Chow now splits her time between Los Angeles and Seoul. In 2021 she founded KHEE Soju, a rice-distilled premium brand that takes its name from her Korean name and from the idea of energy. It is a different project from the gala. It comes from the same habit of putting Korean taste next to the LA power rooms she already knew how to open.

DiCaprio skipped the dinner with a cold; Vittoria Ceretti came in his place. Govan thanked Chow for drawing artists, filmmakers, designers, and friends back every year, and called the gala the museum’s greatest fundraiser and friend-raiser. Chow answered with gratitude. She is done as co-chair. Whoever hosts next year inherits a dinner Los Angeles already knows how to attend.