Private dinners for Alexandre Gertsman’s friends and clients have become though unique but a tradition at the gallery. At one of them, as guests were seated for dinner, Mr. Gertsman lightened the mood with entertainment from performer Frank Blocker, who sang a risqué number about self-love. A former Drama Desk nominee for Outstanding Solo performance, Blocker was last year on the boards in his critically-acclaimed edgy comedy about New York City apartment dwelling, Stabilized Not Controlled – from which he performed excerpts during the gallery’s event. Blocker brought his amazing voice and comic chops, providing the perfect appetizer to an evening of art and conversation.

Mr. Gertsman’s special guest and friend, collector Robert Cancro, Professor and Chairman Emeritus of Psychiatry at New York University Medical Center, and his wife Gloria, a poet who has written several poems about Russian art, enjoyed the performance. Dr. Cancro has been a longtime consultant to the U.S. Secret Service and is known for developing a U.S.-Russian research consortium on terrorism and posttraumatic stress disorder.

At another dinner at the gallery Kim Oler, winner of multiple Daytime Emmy Awards, the Richard Rogers Award and the BMI Jerry Harrington Award, entertained the guests with his trademark cabaret-style singing and piano playing with grace, ease and elegance. Guests, surrounding the piano, were completely immersed into the musical world of Mr. Oler as he performed his own compositions.