The New York elites Anna Sorokin tricked into posing as a German heiress may still turn their backs on her, but the impostor who inspired the series "Inventing Anna" Today he has an unexpected support five years after his arrest for fraud: that of the art world.
The artists Alfredo Martínez and Julia Morrison present until this Sunday in a gallery in the Lower East Side neighborhood -not far from the habitat of the nicknamed "Soho hustler"- the ephemeral exhibition (of only four days) "Free Anna Delvey"which brings together five drawings signed by her in captivity and others made by creators who were inspired by her case.
"We organized this ‘show’ to show him the support of the art world, which has seen his struggle. Each woman to whom we have proposed to collaborate has said that she does, her story affects them strongly. In an unequal world, some feel the only way to get ahead is by lying."Martínez tells Efe by phone.
Sorokin, a Russian-born German with no connections to the high society she pretended to belong to, has creatively put her time behind bars to use since she was arrested in 2017 after leaving an unpaid $11,500 bill at a luxury hotel.
Sentenced at age 31 to between four and twelve years in prison in 2019, for various financial crimes, she was released in February of last year for good behavior, but then the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) assumed her custody. , for its acronym in English), with which he maintains a dispute to avoid his deportation.
Of her nearly four years in prison, the young woman revealed on the top-rated program "good morning america"of ABC, which managed to get something similar to a treatment "therapeutic" because he dedicated himself to "read and write"although it seems that he also undertook a profitable activity during his prison stay: drawing.
His doodles on paper and pencil, which he posted on a website called "Anna Delvey Diaries" and on their Instagram account, they caught the attention of Martínez, a New York artist with the concept of fraud very present in his history and work, since he went from serving a sentence for copying Basquiats to being exhibited at MoMA.
"she tries to express herself"
In that famous museum hangs a piece by Martínez that represents a weapon, about which he explains: "I was deliberately provoking the prison to make headlines and cause controversy. But Anna is trying to express herself, as anything she says can be used against her in court.".
In one of the pieces of the exhibition that the "honors" depicts herself in a red Alexander Wang dress, blue prison socks, and Agent Provocateur (fashionista) handcuffs, including a "sandwich" of thought in which it cries "send me bitcoin" while using the jail pay system.
Martínez, more interested in his drawings "sarcastic" that in his famous story -"these things happen in new york every couple of weeks"apostille- has made reproductions of Delvey’s drawings of 55×76 centimeters that are sold for 10,000 dollars and whose proceeds will go partially to a children’s NGO and to the legal defense of its author.
The opening at the A2Z Delancey gallery, according to a video posted by Delvey on his Instagram, gathered around a music concert "grungy" and graffiti to dozens of people who "chanted" and demanded his release, arguing that he has served his sentence and paid financial compensation.
His arrival in the artistic sphere does not end there: the Founders Art Club organization, which represents Martínez, will present in April the first solo exhibition of that "socialite" of posh converted into a media phenomenon, and has opened a waiting list to be able to see it and receive notifications to acquire its pieces.
With the hit of Netflix "Inventing Anna"in which actress Julia Garner ("Ozarks") plays Sorokin, the con artist received $300,000 for consulting on the series, more than the $200,000 she swindled from hotels and banks.
