Being a hot young artist in New York used to mean being British (and having a bar stool with your name on it at the West Chelsea bar Passerby). But now it’s all about being related – there’s a wave of up-and-coming artists with very familiar names. Meet the families . . .
Sophie Crumb, 20, daughter of Robert (pervy creator of Fritz the Cat). Sophie did the cartoons that Thora Birch’s character draws in Ghost World. Currently has a piece in “Something, Anything,” a group show at the Matthew Marks Gallery. Any anxiety-of-influence issues? “My parents are in a totally different world,” she insists by cell phone from an Italian campground. “I’m not really with people who know my dad’s stuff.”
Mirabelle Marden, 23, daughter of abstract painter Brice. Not an artist but a dealer – her new gallery, Rivington Arms, is devoted to young artists who have not shown elsewhere. Could not be reached because (in the great art-world tradition) she’s spending August on a remote Greek island.
Lola Schnabel, 22, daughter of the Falstaffian Julian. Paints and works on films and loves to go out (just like Dad). Also makes T-shirts. Her work popped up in an InStyle shoot of actress Annabella Sciorra’s apartment – alongside a painting by her father.
Isca Greenfield-Sanders, 23, daughter of photographer Timothy, granddaughter of painter Joop Sanders, and niece of sculptor John Sanders. Compared by the Times to Gerhard Richter. “I started studying with my grandfather when I was 7,” she says. Her June show at Lombard-Freid sold out three days before it opened. In February, all four Sanderses will have a group show in Miami. Could Isca outshine Papa? Eighties art operator Mark Kostabi writes that young artists looking to get ahead should sidle up to Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and “be happy that you’ve met the father of the great artist.”