Watch out, Miami: Anna Delvey’s coming to town.
Well, not really. The 31-year-old scam-artist-turned-real-artist is currently stuck in her New York apartment on house arrest. But new examples of her artwork will debut at a secret party this Saturday, December 3, in Miami. And Delvey—whose real name is Anna Sorokin—is set to make an appearance via Zoom.
Sponsored by the Locker Room, a Brooklyn-based gallery and “creative house,” the event marks the debut of a new series of works by Delvey, who adopted an art hobby while detained in a correctional facility this year.
Back then, the would-be artist was working with colored pencils, pens, and paper—the only supplies allowed by the detention center workers monitoring her mail. But since being released in October, Delvey has expanded her chest of tools: This weekend’s event, dubbed the “House (Arrest) Party,” features four new acrylic paintings on canvas.
Anna Delvey, Prowling in Prada (2022). Courtesy of the Locker Room.
Each artwork is a kind of self-portrait, with Delvey decked out in chic silhouettes against marbled backdrops. A circular canvas called Danger Zone casts her in a gauzy white dress behind bars, while another, Good Behavior, simply shows the artist’s feet clad in stilettos and a glowing ankle monitor.
As a whole, the group is less self-deprecating than Delvey’s drawings, which often played up her detention status to punny effect: Anna on ICE, for instance, literally depicted the socialite lounging on a floe like a polar bear. Then again, one of the new paintings does get at the artist’s sardonic side. It shows her waving from her New York apartment, as if announcing her return to the world. Above is a caption that reads, “No One is Safe.”
Anna Delvey, No One is Safe (2022). Courtesy of the Locker Room.
Visitors to Delvey’s show in Miami might do well to heed that warning too. Her artworks don’t come cheap, with prices ranging from $15,000 to $25,000, according to a spokesperson for the Locker Room. (One piece, a rectangular composition called Prowling in Prada, has already sold.)
The Locker Room has been working with Delvey since her release from ICE detainment, the representative explained. Last month, the gallery tapped her to curate a show of works by Locker Room artists, all of which were hung in Delvey’s own apartment.
“This Post-Isolation Era is the era of the prankster and the absurdist—where irony, PR, and fake news permeate everyday life,” the gallery’s operators said in a statement explaining their partnership with Delvey. “The art that will be emblematic of this era collapses reality and fiction. While we don’t condone illegal activity, we sure do find it interesting.”
Identifying her as a “young immigrant female and aspiring art patron has become a representative of crime and deceit in a time of institutional mistrust and corporate theft,” the Locker Room’s statement posits Delvey as a kind of wayward creative on her way back home.
“From art student, to entrepreneur, to organizer, Anna has inhabited a number of roles since immigrating to the US, always with art as her raison d’être,” the gallery said. “We are excited to be collaborating with this disruptor and visionary as she renews her dedication to her art practice.”
The exact location of Saturday’s party will be provided upon reservation, per the event’s invitation. Meanwhile, the Locker Room is also manning a booth at Miami’s Untitled art fair, where works by Manuela Viera-Gallo, Kalina Winters, and others are on view.