No Gallery Valentina Vaccarella’s Armory Presentation Named Top Three Exhibitions To See This Fall
We are pleased to announce that Valentina Vaccarella and No Gallery’s presentation at this year’s The Armory Show was named top three exhibitions to see this fall by Julia Halperin in the Robb Report. You can pick up a copy of the Robb Report’s July Collecting Issue in print at any newsstand or the interview can be read on the Robb Report’s website, here.
Vaccarella will be exhibiting a new body of work with No Gallery at this year’s The Armory Show from September 7th to September 10th, 2023.
Tickets for The Armory Show can be purchased here.
Most visual artists don’t get one big break. Instead, they ascend several incremental rungs—a high-profile museum group show here, a sold-out fair booth there—as they muscle their way toward the art-world establishment. The three you find here are each at slightly different points along that trajectory, but all are poised for what promise to be milestones this fall.
Julia Jo, Valentina Vaccarella, and Igshaan Adams utilize disparate mediums and explore a range of subject matter, but the trio share the rare ability to create art that feels distinctly of the moment. Even if you’re just learning these up-and-comers’ names now, you’ll likely be seeing their work everywhere soon.
Valentina Vaccarella
Valentina Vaccarella has managed to turn a favorite millennial pastime—getting lost in niche corners of the internet—into an art form. Her latest obsession, female political leaders and politicians’ wives, has inspired a new body of work that’s poised to make her the talk of the Armory Show in New York come September. Her eerie portraits will be the subject of a solo presentation by the city’s No Gallery, which was awarded the fair’s Gramercy International Prize for a promising first-time exhibitor.
Vaccarella, who has appeared in group shows at hot spaces Shoot the Lobster and Anonymous Gallery, among others, drew considerable attention with her debut solo show at No Gallery last year. The New York–based artist was inspired by infamous madams, including “Hollywood Madam” Heidi Fleiss and Kristin M. Davis, who was caught up in the investigation of former New York governor Eliot Spitzer. Vaccarella transferred their images onto dowry linens that her mother had collected over the years to create evocative, confounding paintings.
“I’m interested in the connection between political unions, marriage, and prostitution, the oldest profession,” she says. Both marriage and prostitution can require a woman to trade sex for material security, and those who veer from societal standards—whether as successful madams or disenchanted wives—often end up facing harsher consequences than their male counterparts.
Double standards, power, and the marketability of women also figure into the paintings Vaccarella will debut at the Armory Show. She juxtaposes images of Syrian First Lady Asma al-Assad, former American First Lady Melania Trump, and former prime minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko, among other prominent women, with symbols of their power and glamour, such as Chanel’s camellia flower.
As soon as Vaccarella completes one series, she’s already dreaming about the next. Stay tuned for her sure-to-be-provocative dive into high-profile divorces.