Jamian Juliano-Villani makes unlikely mash-ups. In her paintings, she juxtaposes weirdly nostalgic images that she has voraciously collected from old books, the Internet, her constantly playing television—wherever she finds them. And at O’Flaherty’s, the buzzy East Village art gallery that she runs with her best friend, Billy Grant, she transports under-recognized artists—often, those who were celebrated in their heyday but are now overlooked—into a new context.
Her debut solo show this past spring, at Gagosian, reportedly sold well, with prices in the five and six figures. O’Flaherty’s, since it opened in 2021, has punched way above its weight. And yet Juliano-Villani, 37, says she has “no fucking clue” how all this happened. Her only plan, she insists, is to have no plan: “I’d like the paintings to stay as open…
