Nicolaia Rips, who published a memoir about her New York upbringing at 17, explores the enduring and intergenerational appeal of the 73-year-old writer and consummate New Yorker. While listening to Fran Lebowitz's talk at Kings Theater, questions arise of just what is so alluring to a younger generation about a writer who doesn’t write, an evergreen icon who walks the streets of New York unencumbered, an anti-celebrity who’s managed to maintain relevance despite waging a decades-long campaign against the concept.
2. 14 CULTURED Young Artist Alums Weigh In on What Their Careers Have Taught Them So Far
Ahead of the announcement of this year's Young Artists list, CULTURED caught up with talents who made the cut over the past seven years. They shared their advice for the current class and fill readers in on what they've been up to since they last graced the pages of the magazine. Artists Kelly Akashi, Sam McKinniss, Christina Quarles, Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Anna Weyant, and more are featured.
3. Against All Odds, We Found a List of Things Fran Lebowitz Actually Likes
CULTURED’s Winter issue cover story came alive through the photography of Daniel Arnold, the beloved street photographer who has always managed to paint icons—including the likes of Rihanna, Austin Butler, and Bella Hadid—in a fresh, intimate light. While the pair wandered from Caffè Reggio to Fran Lebowitz’s various smoking haunts on nearby street corners, we interviewed the star about her enduring influences. Lebowitz, notoriously difficult to impress, had this to say: “In general, most things are annoying. Something that simply isn’t annoying, I am grateful for.”
4. Photographer Daniel Arnold Knows the Key to a Long-Term Relationship with New York
Daniel Arnold and Z. Susskind’s meet-cute took place in the most caffeinated of terrains: a breakfast joint where the latter works. “He is a great server of breakfast,” Arnold guarantees over Zoom. Over the past decade Arnold has become a beloved and deeply human visual storyteller of the emotional topography that is New York, with his work most recently on view at New York Life Gallery. Breakfast dealer Susskind is also a sculptor, preparing for his first solo show with Entrance gallery this December. To honor both milestones, the duo sat down to talk about their analog approaches, staying enchanted, and why New York is immune to downfall.
5. Introducing CULTURED's 2023 Young Artists List
CULTURED’s eighth annual Young Artists list features 27 makers, all 35 or younger, that are a testament to the resourcefulness and optimism required to choose not only the work, but also the life of an artist. They represent a wide range of geographies, mindsets, and mediums. Some have shown their work in august institutions; others operate entirely outside of the traditional gallery system. Some practice in a vacuum, while others would never dream of working alone. Some compare their work to committing a crime, others to creating an avatar. What unites them all is a commitment to their unique visions and an urge to follow their own compasses, no matter the weather.
6. Here Are the Five New York Exhibitions You Have To See Before the Year Ends
With the holiday bustle just weeks away, time is running out on art year 2023. Fortunately, New York is anything but sleepy—galleries often save their best artists for a last hoorah, and the next month and a half is no exception. Whether you've booked a visit or call the cultural core home, CULTURED is here with the five exhibitions you can’t miss in Manhattan before the ball drops.
7. Spiritual Fitness Doyenne Taryn Toomey Shares Her Favorite (Free) Hack to a Better Mood
Taryn Toomey does not like being called a guru. But as the founder of The Class, a cult movement method that could be described as part yoga, part Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and part dance party, she has earned a dedicated and sizable following. For CULTURED, Toomey reveals how she developed The Class’s signature aesthetic and scents, as well as her tricks for coming back to herself that cost nothing at all.
8. Donna Haraway’s Children: Meet the Dynamic Young Artists Who Are Embracing the Cyborg
Two purple-haired women are wrapped around a pole that is part-stripper, part-IV. The sci-fi scene is a sculpture by Swedish artist Cajsa von Zeipel, one of a number of contemporary creatives who are embracing the cyborg as a subject. From biotechnologies that rewrite experiences of embodiment to cellular devices that act as cognitive prosthetics, we are all, to one extent or another, cyborgs. As contemporary artists grapple with what that means today and imagine what it may mean tomorrow, Donna Haraway’s cyborg feminism has remained a touchstone: a framework to celebrate, expand, and challenge.
Get Lost, career adventurer Erin Leider-Pariser’s seven-step manual for traversing life with grace and curiosity, hit shelves last September. It opened a new chapter in her career, which started in New York. Leider-Pariser was working as a personal trainer when one of her clients, famed collector Beth Rudin DeWoody, managed to infect her with the art bug. Several years later, with works from the likes of Sanford Biggers and Gabriel Kuri hanging on her walls, the author shares her thoughts on travel, art, and the intersection of the two.
10. With a New Honeymoon-Inspired Show, Artist Jenna Gribbon Charts the Topography of a Sapphic Life
Jenna Gribbon is a visual force in figurative painting, with female nudes skirting the margins of agency and consent. Her work posits an age-old question, new again for the Internet era: In a world of pussy galore, how do we consume what we’re seeing? Taking subject matter where she finds it, the 44-year old, Brooklyn-based artist—now on view with "The Honeymoon Show!" at Lévy Gorvy Dayan—unspools the mystery of painter and muse. It's never quite clear who’s looking at whom, which is exactly the point.
