Celebrating Sandro Kopp's Portraits - NYTimes.com Michael Nagle for The New York Times Joel Coen, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, and Sandro Kopp skype with Wes Anderson at a dinner party celebrating Mr. Kopp's exhibition. For an artist who lives in remote northern Scotland, Sandro Kopp is very well connected. But then, you would be, too, if Tilda Swinton was your girlfriend and you had a score of famous faces willing to pose for you. To celebrate his latest portraits, the 33-year-old artist held a dinner for 80 guests on Jan. 28 at Lehmann Maupin's Chrystie Street gallery in Manhattan. It drew plenty of celebrities, Frances McDormand, Joel Coen, Michael Stipe and Gina Gershon among them. It also had Wes Anderson, the director, via Skype. Although listed as a host, he was stuck working elsewhere, and so Mr. Kopp (bearded and in a dinner jacket that gave him a master portrait painter look) and Ms. Swinton (in an architecturally stunning Lanvin dress and very high heels) carried him around on an open laptop, which let Mr. Anderson mix and pose for photographers. "The only thing I couldn't do was give him a drink," Mr. Kopp said. The virtual attendance was appropriate, given the work on display. All of the realistic oil portraits on linen came from sittings Mr. Kopp set up on Skype. "I use media technology to create an old-fashioned art form," he explained. Skype allows you to get very intimate. These portraits are all about being present. If only the same could be said about the dinner guests. Many, including Carine Roitfeld, Poppy Montgomery, Italo Zucchelli and Demet Muftuoglu-Eseli (who had presented Mr. Kopp at Istancool last year) did manage to mingle face-to-face and converse like civilized adults during cocktails and a soulful surprise serenade by Patrick Wolf, a British singer. But by the time they sat down at banquet tables with purple tulips for pan-seared duck and baked branzino, they were wielding cellphones as if they were steak knives. Waris Ahluwalia, the jewelry designer and a model in the exhibition, showed pictures on his phone to Ms. McDormand. Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld got Ms. Gershon's e-mail address. Ryan McGinley, the photographer, shared images with Mr. Stipe. Kate Schelter, an image consultant, texted during half the meal, then apologized. "My mother brought me up right, and she'd be appalled," she said. Angel Otero, an artist who shows at the gallery, watched the tech ballet, device-free. "People take out their phones when they don't know what else to do," he said. Most of them knew what to do after dinner. They checked their messages as if it were the middle of a busy work day, then headed to Chinatown for an after-party at an underground spot, Pulqueria. Mr. Kopp and Ms. Swinton were among the last to go. "I don't know what time zone I'm in," said Ms. Swinton, who also lives in Scotland, and who was on her way with Mr. Kopp to Los Angeles for the Screen Actors Guild Awards. She was nominated for best actress for "We Need to Talk About Kevin." Ms. Swinton did not win. All I know is that we get on a plane at 4 in the morning to be there. Maybe next time they'll Skype themselves there instead.