Inside the Artist’s Studio: The Real Dynamics of the Artist–Assistant Relationship

​7 PM - Inside the Artist’s Studio: The Real Dynamics of the Artist–Assistant Relationship

​This is the final talk of the evening at WSA, part of Canvas on the Silver Screen: A Live Conversation Program, inspired by The Christophers, directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Ed Solomon.

​Closing the program, this panel offers a candid look at the structures behind contemporary art production.

​While the myth of the solitary artist persists, most studios operate as collaborative ecosystems. This conversation brings together leading contemporary artists to unpack the realities of studio life: authorship versus collaboration, labor and recognition, and the emotional and economic dynamics that shape these environments.

​Panelists reflect on their own experiences—both as assistants and as artists leading studios—and consider how these relationships influence artistic development, opportunity, and power. Ian Cheng creates AI-driven live simulations held in the collections of MoMA, the Whitney, and the Guggenheim. Jamian Juliano-Villani is a painter and co-founder of the East Village gallery O'Flaherty's, whose image-collaged canvases are held in the collections of the Whitney, the Guggenheim, and the Brooklyn Museum.

​Panelists: Ian Cheng and Jamian Juliano-Villani

​Moderator: Ajay Kurian

​About The Christophers
A mainstay of the London art scene since his starry breakout in the creative explosion of the 1960’s, Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen) has drifted into a cluttered, self-imposed seclusion. His two estranged children (James Corden, Jessica Gunning) enlist Lori (Michaela Coel), a young painter and sometime-forger, to pose as a prospective assistant and gain access to a fabled series of unfinished canvases Julian has buried deep in his home studio, in a deceptive bid to secure an inheritance for themselves.