Loose Threads: Are we living in an art "movement?" Would we even know it if we were?
By Rachelle Hruska MacPherson. June 23, 2025
Amuse-bouche
Ciao from Roma! I’m on a three-day pit stop en route to southern Spain for a summer adventure with my boys. I woke up in the middle of the night on Saturday to see my phone exploding with the news of Trump’s unauthorized bombing of Iran. I won’t get into it on here at all, other than to say: the mental gymnastics required by his supporters (many of whom voted for peace and prosperity!) is truly mind-boggling.
Anyway, back to Rome!
We’re here for a good reason, we’re celebrating a friend’s art opening on our way to Spain. The weekend’s been a blur of lunches, dinners, soirees, and late-night conversations with a circuit of art-adjacent folks from all over the world. I love dipping my toes into the art world, especially as a nobody in it who is totally removed from its relentless swirl of fairs, auctions, and backroom dealings. It feels a little James Bond-y, except I get all the fun and none of the fear.
More on that below, but first, the question of the day:
le menu du jour:
If money and provenance were no object, what one piece of artwork would you covet?
For me, it’s easy: a large Cecily Brown. Followed closely by a massive Sheila Hicks.
Drop your answers in the comments, or honestly, just say hi. I love hearing from you there.
hors d’oeuvre
Before skipping town, I packed in a week full of New York moments including toasting the impossibly chic Athena Calderone’s new studio opening in Tribeca, celebrating the divine Elyce Arons’ new book at her launch party (where I met someone wearing our Ilias dress - an unbeatable feeling), and strongly considered chopping my hair into a bob at Cultured Magazine’s party celebrating Leslie Bibb. Bobs are having such a moment!
We also toasted to the retirement of Michael Staats, the wildly talented artist and designer who’s been at Sean’s side for 3 decades, helping shape spaces like the Waverly Inn, The Bowery, Marlton, Ludlow, Maritime, and Chelsea Hotel. A quiet legend. I can’t wait to see what he does next. More band shows and art openings, less CAD drawings….
plat principal
When in Rome...
I happen to love this city, especially when we do it right. This trip hit that sweet spot: think more Roman Holiday, less Disneyland-on-steroids.
We came to celebrate our pal Gavin Brown, who now has two galleries here. One is housed in a former cathedral directly across the street from the beloved restaurant with a cult following: Da Enzo, and is currently showing a stunning exhibition of Jannis Kounellis - a leader in the Arte Povera movement (which now feels oddly in step with our current moment) as well as a a 7-hour-long video deposition of Richard Prince, which I promise is more riveting than it sounds…in small doses.
Friday night was the opening party, followed by a dreamy dinner at the Kounellis studio/home, hosted by his widow, Michelle. Over a giant spread of dozens of Italian dishes, in a perfectly lit Roma garden, we caught up with old friends from all over the world, and met new ones too. It was festive and beautiful and left me so filled with gratitude for the abundance of beauty the world shows up with.
Abbondanza!!!
Michelle Coudray is, herself, a work of art. Over an intimate bon voyage dinner last night, she shared her colorful stories of the 1960s Italian art scene (her first husband was sculptor Pino Pascali and these vintage photos of them are a delight!). We moved to talking about what art “moment’ we are in now. The bad news, all of the art people at the table agreed we are not in one right now. “But how would one know?” I naively asked. “We just would.!” Well, I wasn’t going to argue with the venerable Michelle Coudray and the charmingly cantankerous Gavin Brown on the topic in the moment, but I did put it to chat gpt just for fun:
Here’s the condensed version of what AI told me:
Are we living through an art movement right now? Sort of—but it’s messier than the tidy-isms of the past (think Dada, Surrealism, etc).
Today’s art world is more fragmented and market-driven, but there are definitely some currents:
A return to figurative painting, often centered on race, gender, and queerness (hello, Amoako Boafo, Jenna Gribbon)
Eco-conscious work responding to the climate crisis
Post-Internet art—think memes, glitches, and digital detritus
A hunger for IRL connection: community-driven art, shared meals, participatory projects
So yes, art is moving—just not marching in one direction.
(And yes, I’ve met Jenna Gribbon. And yes, I’m still on my “only collect work by artists I know” journey. So now I need to dig in there more!)
As Marcel Duchamp famously said “true dadaists reject dada.”
Duchamp always was one step ahead.
Saturday’s lunch was back at Da Enzo in their private dining room, and consisted of a butter-and-sardine-fueled feast followed by an absurd number of pasta courses. I loved chatting with everyone at the table, including Thierry Conrad Reutenauer of Bottega Veneta and Paul Olivennes, the art director. They’d just come off the launch of one of my all-time favorite ad campaigns, which I listed on a previous Loose Threads! It was a treat to hear how it all came together.
A long walk—with the single destination of Schostal’s PJ store—was our only attempt at settling up our caloric scores. The store, like many Italian success stories, has been a family business for over 150 years. It’s on every chic fashion friend’s MUST do in Rome list, and it always holds up. The secret? Shirley! The daughter-in-law of the son whose father started the company is a hoot! Follow her on IG - she runs the stories herself.
Saturday night was the real reason for the trip: the opening of Gavin Brown’s solo show of his own artwork at his second space—a hidden, underground gallery (of course) tucked behind a nondescript Roman alley. I don’t think many people know that Gavin started as an artist. (His wife, Hope Atherton, is too—she’s coming off a sold-out show at NYC’s Gratin Gallery.) It was news to me that Gavin actually showed at David Zwirner’s gallery over 20 years ago!
These days, he’s running the Barbara Gladstone gallery alongside Max Falkenstein, but to me—and many others—he’ll always be the cool cat of the downtown NYC art scene. Some of you might remember his iconic bar Passerby (light-up floors, champagne on tap) in the early Meatpacking days. It was my happy place when I moved to New York in 2005. Also his brainchild. The man has range.
Anyway. The show featured 700 original pieces—woodblock prints Gavin had carved and printed himself—laid out on tables in the gallery basement and sold for 50 euros apiece. It was exhilarating to sift through them, choosing which to take home, while chic international art world types mingled above in the alleyway with pasta, wine, and champagne flowing freely. (Very Gavin brown).
The next day, still buzzing from the night before, I was trying to sum up the feeling I felt at the opening when I stumbled upon this Instagram video from @subwaytakes. It nailed the feeling. So much of the capital-A Art World is about access and deep pockets. Gavin’s show invited everyone to participate. It was democratic, delightful, and deeply chic. It felt like a “thing” we will be referencing.
That morning, we switched gears entirely and headed to the sold-out-for-weeks show Caravaggio 2025 at Palazzo Barberini. It was breathtaking. Thinking of painting as the media of its day—no film, no TV, no photos—is wild. Caravaggio captured wrinkles, tension, pain, light. His work is emotional, raw, and hard to look away from.
(Also, he killed a guy. After a tennis match. Bad boy of the Baroque, indeed.)
We lunched with some few familiar friendly faces we had spotted at the opening including our dear friends Carla and Antonio Sersale (owners of the Hotel Le Sirenuse in Positano). They gave us the scoop on their newest project—a beach restaurant in Nerano (which is equidistant between Positano and Capri) called Sirenuse Mare. Think: the “La Fontelina of Positano.” It soft opens this August and launches fully next summer. Obviously, we’ll be planning a return trip to toast the next delicious chapter in their ever-expanding empire.
On the way home I popped in into the beloved art supply store POGGI and picked up a watercolor set. I have zero training, but I’m taking it to Spain with me anyway. A trip to Rome can do that to you. Side note: I absolutely LOVE that every single store is closed in Rome on Sundays, but the art supply stores are open!
I’ll be on the road for the next two weeks but checking in often. You can follow along if you’d like in my IG stories.
Also—if you have Menorca tips, send them my way! It’ll be our first time there, and we’ll be ending the trip on the island.
As always, from a girl who grew up in Nebraska dreaming of seeing the world—I don’t take one moment of this for granted. I’m grateful beyond words.
à la carte (Quick hits)
An update on the JFK Jr./Carolyn Bessette documentary: Lauren Sherman interviewed Ryan Murphy for Puck (are you a subscriber?! It’s the only thing I read consistently besides Substack!), and it sounds like he has it more together than we thought. Here’s hoping.
While we wait for that, this outrageous new show is at the top of my must-watch list.
How did I not know Nate Freeman has a podcast with Benjamin Godsill called Nota Bene?
Yes, I’ll be shamelessly reading this issue cover to cover just like you!
And finally—yes, I look back on most of what I’ve posted online with a what was I thinking cringe. But she’s right—things were totally unhinged a couple of years ago.
That’s it for now. Just a reminder that there are still kind, talented, interesting people out there doing cool things. Go find them—and dig it the most.
xo Rachelle
Ciao! (dress here).
A few Brueghels, one of Puberty series by Munch, um, one of Andrew Wyeth’s Philadelphia (LOL I think) snow pictures with baskets, bunch of photographs from that guy from New York who photographed all the kids playing in the street. I forgot an S name. The guy who made the silver balloon bunny, (it’s hot so I have no brain) and had the affair with the porn star who was a member of Italian parliament, Jeff Koons. He’s a bit much but the bunny is cute. A bunch of music I’d like to own rights to.
My most coveted piece of art has to be John Singer Sargent’s El Jaleo. I visit it at the Isabella Stewart Gardner any time I’m in Boston. It makes me happy.