Note: This episode is in video recording on my YouTube! Check it out if you want visuals :-) And check out my feature on the Stevie Nicks Stargirl episode! Welcome back! Today, we’re talking about “gallerinas,” this late 90s-early 00s archetype of women who worked in the art scene in NYC. Think Charlotte York and the protagonist of My Year of Rest and Relaxation. We go into the history of the turn-of-the-century art boom, the appeal and depravity of “aesthetic labor,” and the gallerina connection to other SATC-esque creative industries such as fashion and print media. Thanks for watching, and sources below! Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him, Danielle Gannet (2007)“Gatekeepers to the Art World,” Jan Hoffman, The New York Times (2008)“How Chelsea Became the Unlikely Center of the Art World,” Zoe Lescaze, The New York Times Style Magazine (2023)Boom: Mad Money, Mega Dealers, and the Rise of Contemporary Art, Michael Shnayerson (2019)“Aesthetic Labor for the Sociologies of Work, Gender, and Beauty,” Ashley Mears, Sociology Compass (2014)“A Brief Survey of Gallerinas in Pop Culture,” Heba Hasan, Flavorwire (2012)“Incidentals,” Girls S3E8“The Power of Female Sex,” Sex and the City S1E5“Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl…” Sex and the City S3E4Gallery Girls (2012)“Fashion didn’t invent the gallerina—it simply caught up to her,” Alexandra Leclerc, Vogue Australia (2026)“Gagosiennes,” Vogue (2011)My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh (2018)“Gallerina,” Beatrice Bonino (2024)“Gallerina,” Bryony Dawson, Émergent magazine (2024)TikTok gallerina *** Cover Photo: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. Spanish-American girl threading the loom at WPA (Works Progress Administration/Work Projects Administration) weaving project. Costilla, New Mexico Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/0a547940-392e-0137-af82-535e56c46bfc
