Welcome to another edition of Girl Talk, where Gabrielle Richardson and Gwyneth Giller explore how nostalgic internet aesthetics are shaping contemporary art spaces.
We pulled up to Coney Island the day before it officially opened its gates for spring—right on the edge of something special. The iconic airbrush tattoo artist of Coney Island was getting ready for the season, and warming up with a Y2K rose on Gabrielle’s shoulder. It felt like being backstage at summer—slightly surreal, iconic, chaotic, a little dusty, and totally timeless.
Fast forward a month, and I’m walking into Gabrielle’s gallery space for the opening of Dylan Rose Reigngold’s show, The Blueprint. Before I can even say hi, she hits me with, “Let me take your height!” Naturally, I followed her—a little confused but curious—into this dreamy room with pink and white sheets spread out on the floor and an old-school TV buzzing in the corner. She asks me to stand against the wall, grabs a sticker and a Sharpie, and marks my name next to a line like we’re at summer camp. Just girls being girls, obviously.
That same playful, spontaneous energy runs through everything Gabrielle does—as a curator and co-founder of the Art Hoe Collective. It’s a vibe that helped shape an entire generation of internet-born creativity, now living and breathing IRL in NYC and beyond.
Please enjoy as we reflect on the early days on Tumblr, the evolution of art spaces, miso soup breakfasts, and what it means to hold the door (literally and metaphorically) in 2025.
Gwyneth Giller: How are you feeling right now?
Gabrielle Richardson: So good. It’s a rainy day, but in a way that I like.
GG: It’s funny, because when we shot the photos at Coney for this, it was sunny and hot—like full-on summer.
GR: I know. Now it’s flipped back to rain. It’s been insanely hot lately, and I have really devastating pollen allergies. So the rain is actually a relief—I can finally breathe again.
GG: What do you have planned for the rest of your day?
GR: I have to go back to 40 Crosby for install. Oh, and I’m getting a free facial at one!
GG: Ooh, where?
GR: At Spencer’s Spa, which is right next to the new gallery space. So I’ll get my facial and then just walk over to finish the install.
GG: Your life sounds so fabulous.
GR: It’s just true divine alignment that my facial spot is right next to the gallery.
GG: What are you going to wear?
GR: I really don’t know yet. I’m really focusing on trying to elevate the space and so even though I’m very girly pop, I might wear a black turtleneck.
GG: Are you excited for the opening?
GR: I’m so excited. I feel anytime you’re doing something, you always forget how hard it is because once it’s done, you have a wash of happiness over you and the serotonin makes you forget all the pain.
It reminds me a lot of this hot spring I go to in LA. It’s so beautiful, but every time I go I forget that it’s like 90°, and an hour long uphill. Once I get to the top it’s a beautiful restorative moment.
GG: Metaphor alert! Tell me about the artist you’re showing.
GR: We’re showing the artist Dylan Rose Rheingold. She does these really beautiful subconscious, automatic paintings that tap into the beauty of youth, imagination, nostalgia and freedom. She uses oil paint, glitter glue, and chalk to create these really grand paintings.
She’s from New York. She’s actually from Gramercy, which I thought was really fun because she has the key, which is crazy.
GG: Woooooow…if you know you know.
GR: Right? Yeah, her work really feels like you’re being pulled into a memory of when you were just like a little girl.
GG: I love that. How do you feel the legacy of your time on Tumblr has evolved with you?
GR: I think that my Tumblr origins have put me in a place where I can really value the beauty of nostalgia. Being a young girl on the internet was such a formative experience. People who are our age, and even younger, grew up with the development of the internet. We were on Barbie.com, Habbo Hotel and Neopets—websites like that don’t really exist anymore.
The internet doesn’t offer digital spaces for children the way it did when we were kids. Now, kids are spending time on platforms like Roblox or Twitch—but even those aren’t true “third places,” because, at the end of the day, those games cost money.
GG: Can we just bring back Club Penguin and Webkinz so we can all heal?
GR: The internet is so future oriented that we have nostalgia for something that was essentially a new, growing horizon. The internet grew alongside us and, at this point, has maybe exceeded us. Nostalgia for something that, at its core, was always forward-looking—and the tension between those two forces—perfectly exemplifies the essence of Tumblr Girlhood.
GG: What’s a specific internet aesthetic that you wish you could bring back?
GR: Ooh. Honestly, just really fun photo editing. No one really even uses a filter anymore. We need to bring back the 2012 Santa Monica filter.
GG: Do you think the visual language of Y2K Tumblr has shaped your aesthetic sensibilities as a curator?
GR: Hmmm, yes and no. A lot of the artists I’ve worked with I’ve met through Tumblr, I met Sasha Gordon, who’s now my friend, because she used to submit to the Art Hoe Collective Tumblr account. I think if you were a Tumblr girl, you were kind of built for success.
GG: Hot girl shit.
GR: People always ask me what I do, and I’m just like, ‘I’m just a girl who was on the internet at a very young age and learned how to put my thing down, flip it, and reverse it into something real—something tangible.’
It’s so fun to have my friend, Saam Niami as a co-pilot. Every space we have has been more of a curatorial residency, rather than us having our own concrete space, but every time we go from space to space, it’s just constantly getting better. 40 Crosby is amazing, everyone is like, “How did you get this space in the middle of SoHo?” And the answer is: we just really know how to make people believe in our dreams.
GG: Do you journal or manifest?
GR: Oh yeah, I got my candles in the back. I’m listening to my binaural beats when I go to sleep. I—never mind, I was going to tell you a TMI story.
GG: Go for it.
GR: Okay. I went to get um [whispers] my p*ssy waxed and I asked the waxer if I could put on some binaural beats and they let me play it through the entire waxing studio. Honestly, I think it made a difference. It was smooth sailing from there on out.
GG: I love that. I’m going to request that in my next workout class. I don’t need to be listening to Pitbull, I need “Subliminal Frequencies for Ab Building.”
GR: Exactly.
GG: What does it look like to be an art hoe in 2025?
GR: In this political climate??? [laughs] I feel like it’s really just like sticking to your guns and what you believe in. Everything and anything can be said, but not everything can be done. When I was hosting the Guggenheim Young Collectors Council Party, I was like, “damn, this girl really made it from the internet.”
GG: We need a Tumblr x Guggenheim collab.
GR: They should really do that.
GG: Do you think that Charlie XCX trending now is like an indicator that we’re returning back to the Tumblr era of the web?
GR: Yes and no. I think TikTok has dampened the ethos of Tumblr girlhood because when you’re a Tumblr girl, you really are just speaking into the ether. It was also a structure that embraced community, people could comment or repost or write something underneath like: “You mean to tell me a shrimp fried this rice?” [laughs]
TikTok doesn’t really have room to really uplift community and archival aesthetics. When I’m on Tumblr, I can see a lot of cool zines from the 1980’s with super sick imagery, I don’t think you’re necessarily getting that on TikTok. TikTok is a great app to witness humanity in the sense that it feels like you’re people watching in real time 24/7.
GG: What side of TikTok are you on?
GR: I’m on baby TikTik and bird flu TikTok.
GG: Oh god…Nightmare.
GR: I’m also on book review TikTok.
GG: What’s the last book you read?
GR: I usually read like four books at a time but the last one I finished was Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl by Tiqqun.
GG: Very on brand. What was the last piece of art that made you cry?
GR: I’ve seen so much art this past week at all the fairs. I was too tired to cry.
GG: [laughs] What was the last movie that made you cry?
GR: I cry all the time when I watch movies. I cry a lot during children’s movies—How to Train Your Dragon makes me cry every time. How to Train Your Dragon 2, and Kung Panda 2 also makes me cry. Gets me so good.
GG: Ice Age always makes me cry. Kids’ movies are so weighted, we’re really just exposing kids to morally challenging narratives and nuanced feelings through Pixar animations.
GR: Yeah. Like in How to Train Your Dragon—the dragon is being controlled by an evil dragon, and it ends up killing the boy’s dad. I was like, “What the hell?” And then the boy has to learn to forgive his dragon for it. It literally made me cry. I’m about to cry again.
GG: Oh no, I’ll pivot. Who is your ultimate “It Girl” icon?
GR: Wow, that’s a lot of pressure. It’s funny—I’ve met a lot of my icons, and it humanizes them. For example, my friend’s mom is Simone Leigh, a really famous artist. I look up to her so much as an artist, but also—she’s just her mom, you know? Let’s bring back humanity, baby.
But if I had to choose, I’d say Rihanna. She does everything. I also really appreciate that she’s an immigrant woman. I’m not an immigrant myself, but my family is Caribbean, and it’s amazing to see her doing her thing—dropping music, then stepping away to focus on what she truly wants.
GG: Which is being sexy and cool and having a lot of babies.
GR: Yeah, it’s just having babies and being with her man. And obviously I hope women aspire to do other things besides that. But she’s done it all already at a very young age.
GG: I also think it’s powerful to return to a domestic narrative if that’s what you want to do.
GR: Yes—she’s made so many Grammy-winning albums, played the Super Bowl, and launched a brand with LVMH, which is wild. Then she’s just like, “Okay, fuck it, I guess I’m done.” It’s hilarious because at the end of the day, she’s literally just a girl too. She makes TikToks, which is so funny.
GG: Oh really? I don’t have TikTok anymore but I need to see them. I’m just on Reels.
GR: Instagram Reels are worse than TikTok. My Reels algorithm is so weird—I’m on Catholicism Core Reels. It’s just this someone saying, “The devil is in your stomach. I’m freeing you from indigestion.”
GG: Speaking of indigestion, what’s your favorite meal other than a Nathan’s chili dog?
GR: Oh my god. Actually, I really loved that chili dog. That made my day even though we were being circled by sea gulls. My favorite meal, honestly, is miso soup. I really feel like we aren’t putting enough probiotics in our bodies. I love a miso soup breakfast—wake up in the morning, cup of tea, cup of miso soup. Setting my gut health right.
GG: Love probiotics. This sounds disgusting, but I’m really into kimchi peanut butter sandwiches.
GR: No, that’s so funny. You’re the second person who has said this. I went on a date with a guy and he told me that his dad learned how to make it in jail.
GG: Okay, represent. It’s very similar to a Thai flavor profile.
GR: I don’t know if you’ve gone to Pine and Crane in LA, but they have these amazing peanut butter noodles.
GG: I’ve actually never been to LA. I’m an LA virgin.
GR: You have to go. As long as you don’t expect it to be anything amazing, you’ll have a great time. You should go during Frieze—that’s when everyone’s there, for both Frieze and Halloween.
GG: Oh, I love Halloween. Are you a Halloween girl?
GR: When I’m in LA, I’m 100% a Halloween girl. But in New York, you have to walk and it’s cold.
GG: And you have to coordinate a jacket with the costume, it’s a whole thing.
GR: That’s one thing climate change gave us, last year Halloween night it was like 80°.
GG: Who was your first crush?
GR: What the fuck, who was my first crush? This is so funny, I can’t remember. I was a really late bloomer, I didn’t date anyone until I got out of high school. I went back to my high school reunion and everyone was still hooking up with each other. I’m like, “You guys are still holding the candle for each other?” It’s so weird.
GG: What’s your biggest dating ick?
GR: I don’t like when people are mean and also, one other thing—I’m bisexual and I don’t care if it’s like a woman—but I really like when people hold the door open. Another ick is when people aren’t funny.
GG: Life hack if you want to date Gabby, be funny and hold the door.
GR: Yes, otherwise respectfully GTG.
GG: Last question, what’s the biggest life lesson you’ve learned so far?
GR: Always be kind to everyone. Everyone’s on an emotional journey so you just have to try to see all sides of a situation and be willing to recognize the humanity of other people.
GG: I couldn’t agree more. You have to have empathy for everyone, it’s the only way to stay sane.
GR: Even the people who are doing you wrong, they probably don’t feel great.
GG: Very true. Well, I think we got some good material. I’m going to clean up the transcript and send it to you.
GR: Okay, don’t make me sound like a dumbass [laughs].
GG: What? I won’t!
GR: I’m kidding. One time I got misquoted on an art snark page and they made me sound like a dumbass bitch.
GG: [laughs] What did they say?
GR: I was talking about how much I really love Thelma Golden and the way she curated that show at the Studio Museum in Harlem in the early 2000s. She brought together a group of really notable Black artists, but she also included work by local artists—like pieces that were literally being sold on the street in Harlem.
What I found so powerful was how she used the exhibition to question what makes Black art “good” art. She was really thinking about how an institution like the Studio Museum—this respected Black art institution—interacts with its surrounding community. It’s located in a historically Black neighborhood that isn’t necessarily wealthy, yet it brings in all these esteemed artists and audiences. So the question becomes: how do you bridge the gap between what’s inside the museum and what’s happening artistically right outside its doors?
I thought it was really interesting how she challenged the idea that something being sold on the street could also be art—that she was deconstructing that boundary. But then, during the conversation, someone quoted the artist’s photo and said something like, “Gabby Richardson, you can just pick something off the street and make it art.” And I was like, “That’s not exactly what I’m saying.” They were missing a lot of the context.
GG: Oh my god [laughs], they missed the entire plot. Well we’re setting the record straight here.
