As I explore new opportunities, I hope you will be seeing my byline in a variety of new places! My first three articles as a freelancer are now live, with the Art Newspaper and CULTURED, and I encourage you to go read them. I’m so pleased to be working with both publications, which I have admired for many years—and with two of my favorite editors of all time, Julia Halperin and Ben Sutton.

I filed all three stories while I was in Venice—I had hoped leaving behind the job of staff writer would mean the end of arriving at an exciting press trip destination only to have to sit at my computer for a completely different assignment. Alas, my first few hours in Italy were spent sitting on the beautiful, jasmine-scented balcony at my hotel on Dorsoduro, writing about the May auctions back in New York.

“This Month’s Blockbuster Auctions in New York Could Bring Upwards of $2.5 Billion” for the Art Newspaper

“Dale Chihuly Is Synonymous With Seattle. But Venice Gave Him a Medium, a Career Blockbuster, and a Son.” for CULTURED

“The Sports Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg. Here’s What Else to Expect From the 2028 Olympics.” for CULTURED

On the Auction Beat

Market reporting has never been a major part of my work, but I had a great time with my toddler, Zachary, at the Sotheby’s auction preview researching this piece. It was actually my first visit to their new headquarters at the Breuer Building, and of course everything looks amazing. If you’re reading this, I’m sure you already know, but auction exhibitions—which are totally free—really are the art world’s best-kept secret.

“I always say to people, these are works coming from private collections that are overwhelmingly going to private collections, and these exhibitions are a unique opportunity to have a moment in the sun,” Lucius Elliott, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art marquee sales in New York, told me, as Zachary sprinted off to try and get back down to the lobby, where a vintage car was on display.

The press team was so kind as to help wrangle my little one while I chatted with Elliott and Julian Dawes, the New York head of Impressionist and Modernist art, a dad happy to commiserate about toddlers pulling their parents’ hair. And then, when we headed down to the post-preview drinks reception at the new Marcel restaurant, the wait staff presented Zachary with the most beautiful madeleine cookie. Life is good when you are an adorable baby.

My Debut With CULTURED

Unfortunately, Zachary could not tag along on my trip to Venice, arranged at the very last minute thanks to the good folks at Polskin Arts and the studio of Dale Chihuly. My son would have loved all the boats and gondolas, and it would have been very sweet to introduce him to Chihuly’s wife, Leslie Jackson Chihuly, and his team members. I met them all for the first time when I was pregnant, during a visit to the Boathouse, the artist’s incredible studio in Seattle.

Seeing the studio and Chihuly’s incredible, museum-like collection of art and antiques gave me a whole new appreciation for the artist and his work. I think we take the amazing things he and his team achieve in the fragile medium of glass for granted, and his new show in Venice is absolutely beautiful.

If those two articles were about two of the biggest things going on in the art world right now, the third was totally different. After years fielding my wild pitches about things on the fringes of the art world, my former editor Julia Halperin knew just where to turn when the LA28 Cultural Olympiad offered CULTURED an exclusive on the announcement of the cultural programming for the 2028 Olympic Games. (It sounds really cool!)

Putting this out there in the universe: I want a press ticket to the opening ceremony, so I can write about all the art references and the design of the Olympic cauldron in person, instead of from my living room. (Here’s a look back on my dispatches for the 2026 Milano Cortina games, the 2024 Paris games, the 2022 Beijing games, the 2020 Tokyo games, and the 2016 Rio games—a freelancer covered the 2018 PyeongChang games, otherwise I’m sure I would have weighed in there too.)

All in all, my trip to Venice was good, excluding my trip to the ER to make sure I didn’t have a fishbone stuck in my throat. (Turns out, a sardine cicchetti cut the base of my tongue on the way down, so I had a sore throat for a few days, but was otherwise fine.) Grateful I had the opportunity to kick off the next chapter of my career in such a beautiful city during such a major art event.

Never a Dull Moment

I’m hoping to share more about what I saw and how it felt being on the ground as a freelancer (exciting, but lonely). But that will have to wait—I arrived back in New York, of course, just in time to dive into the craziness that is Frieze Week.

Last year, Zachary and I enjoyed a lovely dinner at Esther II, a refreshing alternative art fair held at the Estonia House, a private club on East 34th Street. I was excited to go back this year for opening day, where I spotted collector Beth Rudin DeWoody and former Armory Show director Nicole Berry, now the senior director of philanthropy at MASS MoCA. (I’ve previously interviewed both of them!)

Cofounder Margot Samel originally conceived of Esther as a one-off event, and she’s insisting that this is the third and final outing, so don’t miss it.

I’ll also note that Samel and Esther III exhibitor Silke Lindner were largely responsible for the art world’s participation in the General Strike in January. Samel’s husband is from Minneapolis, and the two were living there during the George Floyd protests, so it felt natural to want to speak out against ICE’s occupation of the city. That the vast majority of New York art dealers followed their lead was an unexpected, but welcome surprise.

The same goes for the last artwork added to Esther III, a large Kris Lemsalu ceramic piece in the shape of a boot, adorned with leafy greens, a small bird, and what appears to be several tongues. The Estonian artist finished the work, several years in the making, at the very last minute, Samel told me: “She texted me that it was coming in an Uber!”

Don’t art weeks always feel a bit like that? You’re running around, it’s last minute, it’s hectic—but then you see something beautiful. And with that, I’m off to the next fair! Hope to see you out there!

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