​PRIVATE PREVIEW

​An Intimate Evening with Shirley Yang Crutchfield

​Wednesday, September 16, 2026 | 6:00–8:00 PM
529 West 20th Street, New York

​You are invited to an intimate private preview with artist Shirley Yang Crutchfield, offering a rare first look at the making of her forthcoming portrait commission for Princess Delphine de Saxe-Cobourg of Belgium—ahead of its formal unveiling with the Princess later this year.

​Created in response to the Princess’s extraordinary public journey to recognition of her lineage, the portrait explores identity, recognition, authorship, and legacy. For this private evening, Shirley will share the story and process behind the commission and demonstrate the centuries-old water-gilding technique at the heart of her practice.

​Working by hand with precious metal leaf and traditional methods rooted in antiquity, Shirley will demonstrate the meticulous gilding process while discussing how portraiture, historical craft, and gold can be used to explore contemporary ideas of visibility, power, and self-authorship.

​Known for her luminous hand-gilded paintings, Shirley brings together Renaissance technique and contemporary portraiture, often focusing on women who have shaped, challenged, or reclaimed the narratives surrounding them. A former technology founder turned full-time artist, she brings a distinctly personal perspective to questions of ambition, identity, and legacy.

​6:00 PM — Refreshments & private viewing
6:30 PM — Live gilding demonstration and conversation with the artist
8:00 PM — Evening concludes

​RSVP REQUIRED

​Attendance is strictly limited and by invitation only.
Given the intimate nature of the evening, we encourage you to RSVP at your earliest convenience to reserve your place.

​We very much hope you will join us for this special opportunity to experience the creation of an important portrait before it is unveiled to the public.

​ABOUT SHIRLEY YANG CRUTCHFIELD

​Shirley Yang Crutchfield is a visual artist whose gold-leafed paintings merge traditional gilding with contemporary portraiture. Drawing from art history, fashion, symbolism, and her own entrepreneurial journey, her work examines identity, ambition, visibility, and legacy—and the ways in which power, beauty, and self-authorship are constructed, inherited, and reclaimed.