1. Meet Advisor Ralph DeLuca, the Self-Made Celebrity Whisperer Who’s Won Over the Art World
Milling among the booths and openings of during this year’s Frieze New York, you might have found one of the art scene’s best-loved characters, and perhaps the one having the most fun: Ralph DeLuca. With his thick New Jersey accent, high-school diploma, and penchant for straight talk, the art advisor represents a departure from his profession’s typical profile. Yet in the more than two decades since he began his career, DeLuca has climbed the art market’s rank, befriending and collecting high-wattage artists. Find out how the East Hanover native worked his way into the inner circle.
Lauren dela Roche is growing, literally. In preparation for her first New York solo show, on view at Eric Firestone Gallery through June 15, the Missouri-based painter shut herself in the studio for months, working away at the dense feed-sack frescoes she is making her name with. Her one extracurricular? Weightlifting. “My whole life I have tried to be really small, like physically really small,” she tells me over the phone. “I’ve tried to restrict my eating and never gain weight. I'm trying to take up space for the first time in my life. And I think that's the only reason I was able to make a big painting.” Here, the self-taught artist talks rural isolation, secret queer relationships, and side-chick practices.
3. Pharrell Williams Finds 'Beauty in Blackness' With a New Titanium Tiffany & Co. Collection
Pharrell Williams is bringing his signature hit-making skills to Tiffany & Co.’s classic jewelry collection. The multi-hyphenate phenom—who already holds the titles of singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer, and creative director—is adding jewelry designer to his lengthy resume. His Tiffany Titan collection, now available online and in store, blends the luxury juggernaut’s timeless craftsmanship with Williams’s bold flair.
Motherhood is a broad canvas, but it often demands similar traits as art-making: multi-tasking, patience, and originality, to name a few. For some, finding a balance between the contours of motherhood and a creative practice is inevitable, even galvanizing. For others, that tug-of-war is hard-won. To celebrate the resilience of artist-mothers everywhere on Mother's Day, CULTURED Editor-in-Chief Sarah Harrelson sat down with McKinney, Feinstein, Camille Henrot, Karon Davis, Loie Hollowell, and Julia Chiang—working moms across disciplines—to hear how this chapter in life has sculpted their perspectives and practices.
Curation begets exploration—whether that means taking in work by an established star in Aspen or searching for the next big thing in London. For the better part of a decade now, Zachary Frisch has been on the lookout for the best and the next. Today, he counts among his personal holdings work by the 20th century French artist Jean Dubuffet as well as contemporary fixtures such as Diana Al-Hadid, Marina Adams, Vik Muniz, and David Rappeneau. Here, Frisch espouses his love for the artistic fabric of New York, offers insight into his evolving tastes, and gives a peek into his first act of public curation.
6. New York City Ballet Dancer Tiler Peck Confirms: Even Ballerinas Eat Pasta
The New York Times once described Tiler Peck as “the ballerina who can stop time.” A neck injury in 2019 almost forced the New York City Ballet star to stop dancing altogether, but her superlative athleticism won out, and since then, she has helped will ballet into the mainstream. Hot on the heels of Peck’s Time Spell nomination for the Olivier Awards and the U.K.'s National Dance Awards, she offered CULTURED a peek into the life of a prima ballerina.
What does it mean to be a monument in the making? At 42, Nina Chanel Abney is the rare artist who has earned the elite seal of institutional approval—with prized commissions from the likes of the Lincoln Center, work held in the collections of art world megaliths like MoMA and the Whitney, an excess of solo shows under her belt—and remained strikingly current, popular even. The acclaimed painter opened LIE DOGGO, an expansive show at Jack Shainman Gallery’s The School space, on May 18. Here, she lifts the veil on her artistic evolution and principles.
8. Actor Noah Jupe Is Breaking Away From Child Stardom With Two Very Different Roles
Working alongside Hollywood icons (Natalie Portman, Michael Douglas, and Christian Bale, to name a few) is no new ground for 19-year-old British actor Noah Jupe. As he makes the transition from child actor to adult actor, Jupe has found himself grappling with the fear that many who start early share: of being “frozen in time” at the moment they first became famous. With his latest projects, Apple TV’s Franklin and Lady in the Lake, Jupe is ready to melt that image out of audience's minds and reintroduce himself as an actor who contains multitudes.
People move to Los Angeles to turn the page on a phase—or a past life. Upon Caroline Belhumeur’s move west from New York in 2017, the Calvin Klein and Club Monaco veteran immediately tapped into the ease and vibrancy of her adopted hometown, designing elegant yet unpretentious essentials tailored to Southern California’s transitional climate. Barbara Bestor, for her part, has channeled the coastal landscape to create structures that embrace the outdoors without succumbing to them: intimate nooks lined with sustainable wood paneling, open-air spaces that feel both cozy and boundless. Here, the pair sat down to discuss Los Angeles as a muse, designing for the everyday, and their most infamous sartorial eras.
Contemporary Latin American art has a profound advocate in Catherine Petitgas, a former Wall Street analyst whose creative passions forced a sharp career shift. Encouraged by her family to pursue a burgeoning interest in art, Petitgas embarked on an educational path that saw her studying at Christie’s and later earning a Masters in Art History from the Courtauld Institute in London, all before turning to her now full-time philanthropic efforts. Here, Petitgas shares her insights into her evolving role as a patron, the shifting perceptions of the Latin American creative scene globally, and the personal philosophy guiding her journey through the art world.
