Anna ‘Delvey’ Sorokin’s First Solo Art Show Will 'Tell Her Side Of The Story'

Topline

Anna Sorokin—whose masquerade as a wealthy German heiress inspired the wildly popular Netflix series Inventing Anna and landed her prison time—will be the star of her first solo art show next month, full of pieces she completed while incarcerated, her art dealer and curator of the show told Forbes.

Anna Sorokin chats with a court officer during jury deliberations in her trial at New York State … [+] Supreme Court, in New York, Wednesday, April 24, 2019.

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Key Facts

Between 15 and 20 works by Sorokin will likely be listed for $10,000 each at an April gallery show in New York, according to Chris Martine, who is handling Sorokin’s art sales while she remains in custody at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center.

Sorokin’s artwork will depict scenes of life from over the past few years—both pre-incarceration and during her sentence—and give viewers a glimpse into “her side of the story,” Martine told Forbes in a statement, saying the art posted on her Instagram account is a good indication of her style.

Martine described the pieces as a crossover of “fashion sketches and satirical cartoons” done exclusively in pencil and pen on 9-by-12-inch watercolor paper because other art supplies he tried to send to Sorokin were denied by corrections officials, Martine told Forbes.

Though she is still incarcerated, Sorokin has been “very involved” in the planning of her first solo show, Martine told Forbes, and that she’s looking forward to telling her own story herself and “not distorted from someone else’s lens.”

Sorokin is working on wrapping up the final pieces of the collection this week, Martine told Forbes, and the show’s opening date and location will be finalized once her work is done, although he noted there’s already been interest from prospective buyers.

What To Watch For

More art shows from Sorokin. Martine told Forbes Sorokin has made clear she wants her work to be accessible worldwide for her “fans and admirers,” and that she and her team plan to release limited-edition prints of some of the show’s pieces—with a more affordable price tag—after the show. Martine also said there are plans in the works to bring the show to other major art markets and listed Miami, Los Angeles, London and Paris as examples.

Surprising Fact

The solo show follows a successful “Free Anna Delvey” pop-up show in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, where artists displayed their depictions of Sorokin alongside five works she created herself while incarcerated. The show was organized by New York artist and curator Alfredo Martinez, who himself spent nearly two years in prison for wire fraud after selling forged paintings he told buyers were by Jean-Michel Basquiat. One fourth of the show’s proceeds were set to be donated to Sorokin’s legal defense, and Martinez told The Art Newspaper earlier this month he said he hoped the show would pressure authorities into releasing Sorokin from ICE detainment and stop “treating her like Hannibal Lecter.” One artist who took part in the show, Rina Oh, told the newspaper that Sorokin was “using these men in the male-dominated art world . . . and strived to get ahead. Which is a very New York thing to do.” Martinez added that in the art community, “a lot of people, especially the women, feel like the only way to get ahead is to cheat,” according to The Art Newspaper.

Tangent

Sorokin, who went by the the pseudonym “Anna Delvey” for years while posing as a wealthy socialite with a $67 million trust fund, was convicted in 2019 for scamming more than $200,000 from friends in New York’s high society, luxury hotels, fine restaurants, a private jet operator and banks. She pleaded not guilty, and during an appearance last week on popular podcast Call Her Daddy denied being a con artist, but later clarified she “never told any senseless lies. Unless they were, like, a bank.” Later in the interview, she conceded that what she did was wrong but claimed, “So many people are doing worse things.” Sorokin was first thrust into the limelight in 2018, when a feature about her in New York Magazine went viral. The article was later adapted into a Shonda Rhimes-produced series Inventing Anna, which last month became the most-watched English-language series in a single week, according to Netflix.

Key Background

Sorokin was released from prison last year but remains in ICE custody for allegedly overstaying her visa. Earlier this month, rumors swirled that she was being deported back to Germany, but an ICE representative told Forbes Sorokin remains in custody pending the approval of an emergency stay request that was granted in November. Sorokin is a Russian native, but immigrated to Germany at age 16 with her family. The news of her solo art show was first reported by Page Six.

Anna ‘Delvey’ Sorokin’s First Solo Art Show Will ‘Tell Her Side Of The Story’