Art
Diana Sorkin: Painting Spaces, Shaping Stories
Some artists decorate walls. Diana Sorkin transforms environments. As founder and principal artist of Diana’s Murals and More, Sorkin has spent more than two decades proving that art belongs far beyond the walls of galleries. Her canvas may be a child’s bedroom, a landmark building, a restaurant, a corporate headquarters or a community center, but her philosophy remains remarkably consistent: art should be lived with every day.
Originally from Moscow, Sorkin received a classical art education before continuing her studies at Pratt Institute after immigrating to the United States. That combination of traditional artistic discipline and contemporary design training helped shape an artist equally comfortable creating monumental murals, sculpture, decorative finishes and architectural installations.
What separates Sorkin from many decorative artists is her refusal to think of walls as boundaries. To her, they are opportunities. A mural becomes another room beyond the room, expanding space through illusion, narrative and imagination. Venetian plaster evokes centuries-old European craftsmanship. Trompe l’oeil transforms flat surfaces into architectural fantasy. Each commission is designed not simply to complement a space, but to become part of its identity.
Her client list reflects that versatility. From the United States Coast Guard and the Joan & Alan Bernikow Jewish Community Center to restaurants, spas, schools, financial institutions and private residences throughout the New York metropolitan area, Sorkin’s work crosses industries without ever losing its artistic signature.
Public art has also played an important role throughout her career. Her bronze sculpture Owls with Talking Eyes became part of the Peace Fountain at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine after winning the Animals of Freedom sculpture competition, while her ten-foot mobile sculpture Dance of Life, installed at the Joan & Alan Bernikow JCC, celebrates the balance and unity between masculine and feminine energy.
Education is another thread running through her career. As a certified teaching artist, Sorkin has guided students through collaborative mural projects, encouraging creativity, confidence and the belief that art is something people participate in—not merely observe.
Diana Sorkin
That philosophy is perhaps best summed up by Sorkin herself.
“Art is a birthright and not a privilege.”
It is a deceptively simple statement that explains everything she creates.
Whether restoring a historic property, designing a whimsical nursery, producing a monumental mural or crafting a custom sculpture, Sorkin approaches each commission with the understanding that beauty changes how people experience a place. A painted wall can comfort, inspire, surprise or simply make someone smile. That, in many ways, is the quiet power of her work.
In an era increasingly dominated by digital imagery and disposable design, Diana Sorkin continues to create something refreshingly permanent: spaces infused with personality, craftsmanship and imagination.
Because sometimes the most memorable works of art are not hanging inside museums.
They’re the places where life happens every day.
Akea Brionne at Arlo Soho
Last Wednesday, Arlo SoHo‘s opening reception for Akea Brionne drew a crowd that wanted art with their evening kiki and cocktail. I too, came for the artist… however, I lingered for the curator.
From left Jasmine Arakel, Akea Brionne and Stacilyn Silvers-Setayesh
Jasmine Arakel is a shyly prescient impresario that has been showcasing her way from Boston to Miami with her “Living Room” series. Thanks to a heap of heart and sweat equity, Arlo guests can enjoy art of the moment and creator talks without so much as leaving the lobby. Arakel’s hotel-as-gallery idea has caught fire even as major galleries and traditional art markets burn to cinders. To wit, the mighty Waldorf-Astoria hosted its own premiere of the MVo Art Show the evening prior, on its way to a tangentially targeted audience from its former life at Sotheby’s.
Akea Brionne opening at Arlo Soho
Like MVo, Arakel came to art by way of Madison Avenue, with campaigns for Nike, Samsung, Chevrolet, Adidas and Google behind her. In 2022 she founded Curated by Jas, an advisory and curatorial firm that places blue-chip contemporary work in public and private spaces. She brought an advertiser’s instincts with her: she knows what makes people stop walking and she knows what makes them buy.
Akea Brionne opening at Arlo Soho
Down in front! Art talks at Arlo SoHo’s Living Room Gallery
Her newest treasure is Akea Brionne, who holds a dual BA/BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA from Cranbrook, all in the service of photography.
Akea Brionne at Arlo Soho
She uses those credentials the way a good architect uses a blueprint. The photographic portrait is her structure… and then she sews it. The figures are stitched onto the canvas in thick black thread, and the color comes in panels of bright glitter and a library of fabrics. Jacquard is the one that has captured her imagination. “The jacquard loom was our earliest computer system,” she explained, which is the sort of sentence that makes a room full of creatively curious people suddenly look at a tapestry from the left lobe. The layers are, by her own admission, a reflection of her Virgo nature. She loves to sort chaos into beauty. Who among us wouldn’t?
Akea Brionne at Arlo Soho
Brionne was born in New Orleans in 1996 until the diaspora of 2005 and now lives and works in Detroit. According to her website, the large-scale woven works are portals where figuration dissolves into abstraction, holding personal and ancestral memory in the same frame.
Akea Brionne at Arlo Soho
Water, gardens, celestial bodies, thresholds and domestic architecture recur as metaphors for transformation, migration, care, grief and return. The practice is rooted in her experience as a Creole woman, and in Black Southern folklore, Indigenous knowledge systems and somatic approaches to healing.
Akea Brionne at Arlo Soho
This latest series grew out of her search for creative satisfaction outside her familial duties. “I think my art is much more flamboyant than my personality,” the young mom told me with a chuckle. She was dressed in calm dove grey and linen harem pants, a staid counterpoint to the bold, glittery work on the walls. It was the most elegant case of an artist hiding in plain sight that I’ve seen since Clark Kent.
Producer Kaisha Huguley of Broadway’s Wanted
The room was full of the right kind of people, including Kaisha Huguley, producer of Broadway’s Wanted, who was clearly mesmerized by Arlo’s activation for the evening. I should really say “activator,” because it arrived in the dazzling form of Pepe Muñoz, the fashion illustrator from Spain.
Pepe Muñoz at work
Fashion plated guests
Pepe dashingly served bold strokes and savvy squiggles as he turned party-goers into fashion plates. We left clutching our textured watercolor paper, each presented in a chic black envelope, giddy at being seen so elegantly. Some of us were also giddy because the artist bears a distinct resemblance to Pedro Pascal’s younger, hotter brother.
The writer as illustrated by Muñoz
In an era when art is often sold on a screen, Arlo and Arakel are betting that people still want to stand in a room and look at something real, preferably with a drink in hand. On the evidence of last Wednesday, they are winning.
Arlo Hotel SoHo
231 Hudson Street
New York,NY 10013
Art
Live From The Hotel Edison Times Square Chronicles Presents About Face With Caricaturist Ken Fallin
Live From The Hotel Edison Times Square Chronicles Presents, is filmed from the Hotel Edison and is a podcast extension of T2C. We are back after a small hiatus.
Today owner Suzanna Bowling talks with with Caricaturist Ken Fallin and his new book About Face. Fallin’s big break was in 1983 doing the posters and advertising for the popular satirical revue Forbidden Broadway. In 1987, he was commissioned by the Boston Herald to do a celebrity caricature every week in the Sunday arts and entertainment section. Fallin has illustrated roughly 500 notable people for the Wall Street Journal, including President Barack Obama, Paul Newman and Tim Russert for Peggy Noonan’s memorial of the newsman in the paper.
The Fabulous Ken Fallin
His Forbidden Broadway posters promoted the show in London, Tokyo and Sydney. Outside of entertainment, Fallin developed relationships with corporate clientele, particularly American Express, which engaged him on several national media campaigns as well as private work. Belvedere Vodka hired him to turn famous icons like the Playboy Bunny and Quentin Tarantino into bottles of the alcohol. Other clients have included HBO, Showtime and Walt Disney Productions.
Ken Fallin in Shubert Alley
His new book About Face is a distinctive art and cultural publication that brings together a broad collection of caricatures celebrating notable figures from entertainment, music, Broadway, Hollywood, and contemporary popular culture. Through expressive artwork and recognizable subjects, the book captures the personalities and visual character of individuals who have made an impact on audiences across different generations. The collection reflects the author’s ability to transform familiar faces into engaging artistic interpretations while maintaining recognizable characteristics. With its combination of artistic expression, cultural familiarity, and entertainment value, ABOUT FACE offers readers more than a traditional collection of drawings. It presents a visual journey through the personalities and cultural figures that have shaped entertainment and public life.
Join Ken Fallin on October 7th at New World Stages, 340 W 50th St, from 5 – 7 for the unveiling of his art with a wine and cheese soiree. You have been invited.
I am so grateful to Ken Fallin for his conversation, his joy of life and his art that captures the imagination.
We are so proud because the show and our guests are featured on the TV screens in the lobby and the hotel rooms.
Rommel Gopez, Ken Fallin, Suzanna Bowling
Thank-you Magda Katz for videoing and creating the content to go live, Rommel Gopez and The Hotel Edison for their kindness and hospitality, Broadway HD and Dr K and at 200 West 54th Street for giving me back my health and my smile.
We have been named by Variety Entertainment News as one of Summer’s Best Picks in the category of Best Television, Radio, Podcasts. The company we are in, has made us so humbled, grateful and motivated to continue.
“The Daily Geek Report” named host Suzanna Bowling on the list of Most Engaging Hosts.
You can catch us on the following platforms:
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Apple Podcasts:
October may be New York’s most theatrical month, and not merely because Halloween gets the finale. The city moves from Icelandic food and music to Comic Con cosplay, from architectural treasures normally hidden behind locked doors to four days of serious eating at the Seaport. Add film, culture, Diwali, pumpkins and one gloriously eccentric parade up Sixth Avenue, and October gives New Yorkers something increasingly rare: an excuse to stop rushing from one place to another and actually enjoy the city.
Until 10/12: The 64th New York Film Festival October begins with one of New York’s essential cultural events already in full swing. The 64th New York Film Festival, presented by Film at Lincoln Center in partnership with Rolex, runs through October 12 with 34 films in its Main Slate alone, representing 31 countries. Among this year’s major premieres are Ava DuVernay’s 14th, Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial, Tony Gilroy’s Behemoth! and Mani Haghighi’s I Deserve a Lover Whose Every Rise Sets Fiery Dooms Raging Across the Skies. The festival also expands beyond Lincoln Center October 2–9 with screenings at BAM, the Museum of the Moving Image, Alamo Drafthouse Staten Island and AMC Bay Plaza in the Bronx.
10/1–10/3: Taste of Iceland Iceland lands in New York for three days of food, music, film, literature, wellness and some wonderfully unexpected programming. Taste of Iceland opens October 1 with an Icelandic Feast at Platform by the James Beard Foundation at Pier 57 and a free Iceland Airwaves concert downtown. October 2 brings everything from a discussion about Iceland’s communal bathing culture to cocktails and music, while October 3 includes photography, film, a Northern Lights experience and Icelandic comedy. Most events are free, although reservations are required for many programs.
10/2–10/4: We Belong Here: Central Park Electronic music takes over Wollman Rink when We Belong Here returns to Central Park for three days. Friday brings MEDUZA³ and LP Giobbi; Saturday features Ben Böhmer and Stephan Bodzin live; and Sunday closes with Steve Angello, Bob Moses and Tripolism. The setting is half the point: electronic music, sunset and the Manhattan skyline wrapped around Wollman Rink.
Throughout October: Boo at the Zoo Boo at the Zoo transforms weekends at the Bronx Zoo through November 1, with an additional Monday celebration on October 12. Unlike New York’s increasingly adult Halloween universe, this one is deliberately daytime and family-friendly, combining costumes and seasonal activities with the rather unbeatable advantage of having an actual zoo as the backdrop. Activities are included with zoo admission.
10/3: The Little Red Lighthouse Festival One of Manhattan’s sweetest oddities gets its own celebration when the Little Red Lighthouse Festival returns to Fort Washington Park from noon to 4 p.m. Manhattan’s only remaining lighthouse takes center stage for a free afternoon organized with NYC Parks and the Urban Park Rangers. If you’ve spent years living in New York without ever making the pilgrimage underneath the George Washington Bridge, this is a charming excuse.
10/3–10/4: CultureCon 2026 The creative world heads to Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Duggal Greenhouse for CultureCon, a two-day gathering built around Black creativity, entrepreneurship and culture. More than 10,000 attendees are expected for workshops, speakers, networking, career development and immersive activations, with 2026 built around the theme “Museum of Us.” This is considerably more than another industry conference—it has become a gathering place for the next generation of people shaping media, fashion, entertainment, advertising and culture.
10/4: Randall’s Island Harvest Festival For something decidedly more old-fashioned, Randall’s Island turns autumnal from noon to 3 p.m. with a pumpkin patch, seasonal cooking demonstrations, live performances, face painting and nature activities. It is free, family-friendly and one of those events that makes it possible to pretend, briefly, that Manhattan isn’t sitting immediately across the water.
Comic Con
10/8–10/11: New York Comic Con New York Comic Con celebrates its 20th anniversary at the Javits Center, and by now it is less a convention than an annual pop-culture invasion. Comics remain at its heart, but television, movies, anime, gaming, collectibles, celebrity appearances and extraordinary cosplay have turned NYCC into one of the city’s great people-watching weekends. The 2026 lineup includes Nicolas Cage, Marvel Television and Animation, DC’s Jim Lee, ONE PIECE, Blumhouse and the Crown Championships of Cosplay. Friday, Saturday, four-day and VIP passes are already sold out, with limited Thursday and Sunday tickets remaining as of September 26.
10/10 – 10/31: Oktoberfest NYC No passport to Munich required. Oktoberfest continues throughout October at Watermark at Pier 15, with German beer, giant pretzels, brats, live music and East River skyline views. The waterfront celebration actually began September 10 and continues through Halloween, making this less a single event than an autumn-long excuse to raise a stein beneath the Brooklyn Bridge.
10/9–10/10: Law & Order “Dun Dun Diner” Dun dun. NBC’s wonderfully silly—and wonderfully New York—*Law & Order* “Dun Dun Diner” returns to Rockefeller Center for two days, taking over Bill’s Bar & Burger from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Expect themed dishes from Ess-a-Bagel, Katz’s Delicatessen, Magnolia Bakery and Serendipity3, along with merchandise and photo opportunities inspired by the seemingly immortal television franchise.
10/10 & 10/24: Operation Slumber at the Intrepid Museum Here’s one for people who have ever wondered what happens aboard the Intrepid after everybody goes home. Operation Slumber lets children ages 5–17 and their families or groups spend the night aboard the legendary aircraft carrier, with nighttime access to the ship and Space Shuttle Pavilion, a flashlight tour of the Flight Deck and other activities before sleeping among the aircraft. October has two overnights—October 10 and a special Halloween-themed edition October 24.
10/12: Columbus Day Parade Fifth Avenue once again becomes the center of New York’s Italian-American community for the annual Columbus Day Parade. The October 12 holiday also closes NYC public schools and suspends alternate-side parking. Whatever one’s view of the historical debate surrounding Columbus—and that debate certainly isn’t disappearing—the parade itself remains one of the city’s longstanding celebrations of Italian-American heritage.
10/15–10/18: New York City Wine & Food Festival Come hungry. The Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival returns for its 19th year with more than 50 events and hundreds of chefs, culinary personalities, winemakers and mixologists. The Seaport is again its home base, but the Rooftop at Pier 17 becomes an even bigger part of the party this year. Rachael Ray and Bert Kreischer host the Burger Bash; Bryan and Michael Voltaggio take on Steak & Whiskey; Kwame Onwuachi hosts New York After Dark; Andrew Zimmern presides over Oyster Bash; and The Cookout brings together JJ Johnson, Angela Yee, Whoopi Goldberg and Method Man. There are also intimate dinners, brunches, tastings, demonstrations and FoodieCon.
10/15: Open House New York Launch Party Before New Yorkers start opening locked doors all over town, Open House New York throws its official launch party at one of the most deliciously New York locations imaginable: the Woolworth Building. From 6 to 9 p.m., guests head to the 26th floor for skyline views and an up-close encounter with the landmark’s famously elaborate terra-cotta façade—including its gargoyles. Proceeds support the weekend’s public programming.
10/16–10/18: Open House New York Weekend This remains one of the smartest events New York produces. For three days, Open House New York Weekend unlocks more than 300 locations across all five boroughs, allowing the public inside buildings, infrastructure, workshops, collections and spaces we ordinarily walk past without ever seeing. Skyscrapers, manufacturing sites, cultural spaces, parks and pieces of the machinery that actually make New York function are all part of it. Many locations are free and drop-in; others require advance tickets. For anyone genuinely curious about this city, put this one on the calendar.
10/24: Diwali at Times Square Times Square becomes considerably more colorful when Diwali at Times Square returns October 24. The Festival of Lights celebration takes over Broadway between 46th and 48th Streets, bringing Indian culture into the center of Midtown with music, dance, food and celebration. What began as a cultural event has grown into one of the most visible public Diwali celebrations in the United States.
10/28: BID 2026: Peace, Love & City Harvest This is the glamorous one. City Harvest’s BID 2026: Peace, Love & City Harvest takes over The Glasshouse at 660 12th Avenue for a mod-inspired evening channeling the glamour and groove of the 1960s. Nearly 50 New York chefs, restaurants and mixologists join live entertainment and live and silent auctions, with City Harvest hoping the evening will raise enough to help feed four million New Yorkers. Premium tasting begins at 6 p.m.; general admission begins at 7s.
10/31: The Village Halloween Parade Then New York completely loses its mind—in the best possible way. New York City’s Village Halloween Paradecelebrates its 53rd year on Saturday, October 31 at 7 p.m., marching up Sixth Avenue from Canal Street to 15th Street. The 2026 theme is “Body & Soul,” and the parade promises hundreds of giant puppets, more than 50 bands, dancers, artists and thousands of New Yorkers who have spent far too much time constructing costumes—and God bless them for it. Watching is free; anyone who wants to march must be in costume, with lineup beginning at 6:30 p.m. This is not simply a Halloween attraction. It is one of the last great pieces of participatory New York street theatre.
October begins with Iceland, ends with several thousand costumed New Yorkers marching through Greenwich Village, and somehow manages to squeeze food, architecture, superheroes, culture, pumpkins and the Festival of Lights in between. In other words, it is New York behaving exactly as New York should.
There are photographers who document New York society, and then there are photographers who become part of the society they document. Annie Watt belongs firmly in the latter category.
Sometimes a photograph does something far more important than document who was in a room. Walking into Watt’s 20th anniversary photography exhibition at The Consulate, hosted by owners Kiril and Miki Mihajlov, one photograph on the wall stopped me. There was Annie with Judy Gilbert and my friend Errol Rappaport, who passed away last year. For a moment, Errol wasn’t someone I was remembering. There he was again, caught in a living moment among friends. That is the peculiar magic of a photograph: it can collapse time. Someone who is gone can suddenly walk back into the room.
Prince Mario-Max
Nearby were photographs of Prince Mario-Max, another familiar figure in New York’s social and philanthropic world, among the many faces Watt has captured during a career chronicling New York—and, during the season, Palm Beach. Taken together, the walls weren’t simply displaying photographs. They held pieces of lives, friendships and celebrations, a social history preserved one shutter click at a time.
Rod and Judy Gilbert
On September 16, Watt turned the camera back on her own remarkable journey with a one-night-only exhibition and fundraiser celebrating 20 years of the Annie Watt Agency, 2006–2026. But the evening wasn’t simply about looking backward. Net proceeds benefited scholarship programs at the School of Visual Arts, helping promising young artists move forward.
For two decades, Watt has been a familiar presence at galas, benefits, openings and celebrations. Her ability to make people comfortable in front of a camera, coupled with her celebrated eye for posing, turned what began as the work of one independent photographer into the far-reaching Annie Watt Agency. As her bookings grew beyond what one photographer could handle, Watt began sharing assignments with other photographers, eventually building an agency whose work now extends from New York and the Hamptons to Palm Beach and beyond.
Highlighting other photographers work
The Consulate proved a natural setting for an exhibition built around people. Guests mingled over wine and delicious hors d’oeuvres while live jazz played and Watt’s photographs transformed the restaurant into a temporary gallery. The people in the room weren’t simply looking at photographs; many were part of the world those photographs preserve.
Even better, guests were encouraged to take their portraits off the wall and bring them home, allowing the exhibition itself to disappear piece by piece as the evening progressed. What had been part of the gallery became a personal keepsake.
Under the scaffolding a fantasy blooms upon summer’s edge as the ladies at the helm of One Art Space bring Hunt Slonem and his colony of rabbits quite literally home to 23 Warren.
Renaissance of whimsy: Hunt Slonem at One Art Space
The arc of Slonem’s career itself is a masterworking of the American dream and this, his “Through The Looking Glass” exhibition, is an ebullient celebration that insists upon deliberate optimism, despite life’s grim particulars.
Unique Glass Bunny 2026. Courtesy Hunt Slonem
If NYC (battered, resilient, always game for wonder) is the looking glass, then the reflection here is sunny and, despite the state of the nation at large, spot on with whimsy.
The artist held court on September 10, 2026
Hunt Slonem at One Art Space
Here Hunt takes his ubiquitous bunnies, created with singular frolicking strokes that lop themselves onto an array of colored canvases and sends them multiplied throughout One Art’s bright expanse.
Oval Bunny 2026 oil on wood. Courtesy Hunt Slonem
Hunt Slonem at One Art Space
It’s a much larger experience of Slonem than when we shared gallery space at DTR last year. Now, the bunnies have birthed themselves into twisty glass and bright neon. They shimmer in huge lenticular display. At the far end of the exhibition a towering tea cake of bright pastel lurched stoically, Carroll-like and bunny festooned, natch.
Hunt Slonem at One Art Space
Producer Jamie de Roy
The artist, himself resplendent in a verdant green-patterned blazer, chatted amicably among book signing with press, collectors and fans. One Art Space always puts together a top class affair, and the passed small bites were equally creative. Guests sampled from a clever arancini set with tops cut off, revealing its nest of bedfellows marinara and mozzarella, as well as tiny rafts of thinly sliced rare roast beef on artisanal crackers, tuna tartare and heady truffles cuddled with Telaggio cheese in a tender vol au vent.
Hunt Slonem at One Art Space
Hunt Slonem at One Art Space
I couldn’t stay for cake, Manhattanites have just returned from their far-flung summer places and the season has started on steroids. However I trust that, just like Slonem’s hare harem, it too was an airy delight of soft fluff and — upon reflection — just what our collective needs.
“Through The Looking Glass” is on view through September 28th.
My View: Times Square Entertainment At It’s Finest Where Brian J. Nash Offers Sublime Muscianship
Slam Frank: Brilliant, Offensive, Confusing—and Impossible to Stop Talking About
Songbook Sundays: Life Is Kander and Ebb: When the Songbook Leaves You Wanting More
The Glorious Corner
Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe: Manhattan In New York City Is The Museum Capitol Of The World!
Google Is Narrowing Free Gemini Access on October 9. Here’s What It Means for Your Business
Ken Fallin’s Broadway: Matthew Morrison Is Just in Time for Another Broadway Encore
When The Met Meets Madison Avenue: Bobbi Brown Turns Masterpieces Into Makeup
My View: Times Square Entertainment At It’s Finest Where Brian J. Nash Offers Sublime Muscianship
Slam Frank: Brilliant, Offensive, Confusing—and Impossible to Stop Talking About
Songbook Sundays: Life Is Kander and Ebb: When the Songbook Leaves You Wanting More
The Glorious Corner
Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe: Manhattan In New York City Is The Museum Capitol Of The World!
Google Is Narrowing Free Gemini Access on October 9. Here’s What It Means for Your Business
Ken Fallin’s Broadway: Matthew Morrison Is Just in Time for Another Broadway Encore
When The Met Meets Madison Avenue: Bobbi Brown Turns Masterpieces Into Makeup
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