Television networks this fall seem prepared to be unflinching in their determination to reveal the secrets of “the art world” to everyone in America. So while we gear up for the cringe-fest that is sure to be Ovation’s Art Breaker$, let’s take a moment to check in with television’s original set of young, female art moguls: the cast of Bravo’s Gallery Girls.
What has the gang been doing since the eight-show series’s final episode in 2012? One has flown the coop for Los Angeles, one is pursuing a career as a DJ (to be honest, we’re surprised there’s only one), and a couple are still actually in the art world.
Angela Pham
We’ve seen Angela Pham around town for her gig as a party photographer for Billy Farrell Agency, where she’s captured various chic events including this summer’s annual Glass House party, where she was unexpectedly reunited with former castmate Chantal Chadwick.
Pham was featured in a recent Vogue article on her wear-to-work style, which she appears to have toned down significantly since her nipple-flaunting Gallery Girls days. “I try to be appropriate, to blend in without looking too dull,” she told the magazine. She also modeled some jaw-droppingly gorgeous looks from her personal collection of vintage fashion for Harper’s Bazaar. Her personal website indicates that she’s dabbled in editorial photography and has even shot the likes of Jay Z. From the looks of it, her work is no longer “teetering on the precipice of moroseness.”
Chantal Chadwick
Speaking of Chantal Chadwick, she’s blonde now! And she moved to LA, where she co-founded a creative agency called Assortment. She’s also behind a forthcoming online publication called Ana, which is apparently pronounced “Ah-nuh,” and has a sparse website that describes the project as simply: “collections of things, people, places, and ideas.”
Whether or not she’s still routinely late to work thanks to her love of yoga and her need for French press coffee, we do not know. We do know, however, that End of Century, the boutique-cum-gallery Chadwick ran with fellow castmember Claudia Martinez Reardon and college pal Lara Hodulick shuttered in 2013, not long after the end of the show. After an ill-fated run with a similar concept shop in Greenpoint, Chadwick seems to have abandoned the retail business altogether.
Claudia Martinez Reardon
A recent post to the Instagram account of fellow End of Century owner Claudia Martinez Reardon reveals that she is planning to study material culture, anthropology, and design at University College London. She currently runs a floral studio that uses flowers locally grown in the Hudson Valley, and her Instagram feed is full of perfectly-filtered pictures of breathtaking flower arrangements and her adorable dog. She appears to have dropped the second part of her last name, in what we imagine might be an attempt to distance herself from the show.
Liz Margulies
We saw the sharp-tongued, blonde daughter of megacollector Marty Margulies wandering the hallways alongside her father at the VIP opening of the new Whitney museum a few months ago, and couldn’t help but notice that she looked a little different. After obtaining her bachelor’s degree from the School of Visual Arts in 2014 (where, if you recall, she lamented that her classmates were all “quiet little Asian people and scared”), she attended Sotheby’s Institute of Art, which she graduated with a master’s in Modern and Contemporary Art.
Instagram reveals that Margulies is still friends with former cast member Kerri Lisa, though she noted in a 2012 interview that she no longer speaks to her one-time sidekick Maggie Schaffer.
Kerri Lisa
Kerri Lisa was definitely the most hardworking, relatable—and even, dare we say, down-to-earth cast member, so we’re a little surprised to learn that she’s now a DJ. But, hey, if there’s a swifter path to It-girl status, we haven’t found it. She also seems at least somewhat sincere about the endeavor, writing on her Facebook page: “‘Djing’ is so much more than the cliché, to me, it’s the art of mixing music to create something greater and selecting unique tracks in order to evoke specific emotions onto others.”
According to LinkedIn, Lisa still works for the mysterious invite-only lifestyle management firm with which she was employed on the show, and is now the Director of Travel.
Maggie Schaffer.
Photo: via LinkedIn.
Maggie Schaffer
Long-suffering Eli Klein Fine Art intern Maggie Schaffer famously lost the coveted paid position at Bernarducci Meisel Gallery to Amy Poliakoff in the tear-filled series finale. But all was not lost for the espresso-challenged Schaffer, who went on to enjoy gainful employment at photography gallery Hamburg Kennedy in New York.
She is now an associate at the Erik Thomsen Gallery, an Asian art gallery on the Upper East Side.
Amy Poliakoff.
Photo: Zimbio.
Amy Poliakoff
Poliakoff, whose defining moment on the show was getting blackout drunk at the fratty Upper East Side bar Dorrian’s, moved back to to Miami where she briefly dabbled in real estate before rejoining the art world as a gallery manager for the Coral Gables gallery RDZ Fine Art. She stayed with Bernarducci Meisel for just under a year and a half, likely much to the chagrin of the scorned Maggie Schaffer. She is heavily involved in Miami’s Junior League as well as the Young Arts Committee.
Of all of the cast members, Poliakoff seems to be trying to hardest to leverage her Bravo fame into…something. She maintains a Facebook fan page, name drops the show in her bio for her former employer, Douglas Elliman, and inexplicably lists the eight-episode show as having run for two and a half years on her LinkedIn profile.
If only we’d had that long, Amy. If only we’d had that long.
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