1. Fear and Loafing in Las Vegas: Ralph DeLuca on the Art Market Cool-Off
In a summer filled with political turmoil, tariffs, art market jitters, and general stagnancy, collectors with deep pockets are increasingly looking beyond blue-chip contemporary art. Instead, they’re parking their money in pop culture icons, historic artifacts, and natural history—safer bets in uncertain times. The May auction season told a clear story: passes and buy-ins (that received more media coverage from the art press than the last election), failed guarantees, and lower prices. Now, this summer, it feels like one gallery closing after another. Clearly, we already know where the money isn’t going—so let’s talk about where it is being spent and offer some theories on why this shift might be happening.
Read more from Ralph DeLuca here.
Forget the Real Housewives of New York. For the past few summers, the most hypnotic, can’t-look-away form of lifestyle voyeurism has been the cooking videos produced by private chefs in the Hamptons. Often hired for the full season, they serve clients ranging from household names to people who simply consider “summer” a verb. Even though many operate under NDAs, they still broadcast their shopping, cooking, and table-setting on social media. Whether preparing elaborate dinner parties or prepping an after-camp snack, there’s more to the job than meets the eye. CULTURED spoke with three top Hamptons chefs to learn about what the role really entails—and how each of them carved their path to this rarefied world.
Read more confessions from private chefs here.
3. 12 Art Collectors Reveal Their Biggest Rookie Mistakes So You Don’t Make The Same Ones
Everyone makes mistakes—even collectors known for their impeccable taste. Building a substantial collection can sometimes seem like a dark alchemy of instinct, context, connection, and, the most fickle of all, timing. From overpaying for known artists to missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime acquisition before an artist breaks through, who hasn’t lost a little sleep in pursuit of one perfect piece? No one knows this better than the many collectors who have graced CULTURED’s print and digital pages. But in the end, failure teaches more than success. So learn a little here, and don’t make the same mistake twice.
Read more collector confessions here.
4. Zosia Mamet Is Hoping Her New Book of Essays Will Get Her Sued
Does This Make Me Funny?, Zosia Mamet asks in the title of her new book of essays, which is alternately humorous, devastating, and startlingly intimate. The actor—best known for her role as Shoshanna Shapiro in Girls, or to industry folk as the daughter of writer David Mamet and actor Lindsey Crouse—takes readers through her childhood on the fringes of the spotlight, working with abusive or listless agents, her television breakthrough and subsequent career wins, bouts of depression, and terrifying and wonderful relationships. Ahead of the book’s release Sept. 9, Mamet shares how it all came together.
Read more about Mamet’s no-holds-barred new book here.
The weather has turned from oppressively hot to kind-of-nice-outside. That means we’re coming upon everyone’s last chance to lay out at the park, on the roof, beachside, or wherever you prefer to schlep your to-be-read list of books. We’re going to go ahead and assume you’ve already made a sizable dent in that list this summer and recommend a few last additions that should provide a giddy, can’t-put-down momentum that makes for smooth sailing as the summer wanes. Get to know former CULTURED cover star Gwyneth Paltrow in all her complexities, investigate a disappearance in a luxury condominium, or stay up late in a small town where eerie howling sounds in the night. Here, we’ve ranked our selections in order of likelihood to scratch your itch for salaciousness.
Read more about these late-summer page-turners here.
Artists Rashid Johnson and Sheree Hovsepian welcomed the Guggenheim Museum’s closest supporters to their East Hampton home for the museum’s annual summer cocktail gathering. The occasion toasted the launch of the Guggenheim Constellation Council, a newly formed philanthropic group offering global access across the museum’s institutions. The evening also honored “A Poem for Deep Thinkers,” Johnson’s acclaimed mid-career survey on view at the museum through January 2026.
Read more about the festivities here.
7. 72 Hours in Aspen: Matthew Barney, Issy Wood, and the Catastrophe of Life on Land
Johanna Fateman lands in Aspen five hours later than planned, woozy from the turbulent flight, worried she’ll miss the entire cocktail hour before a seated dinner where she’s expected, but she’s calmed by the astounding beauty of the surrounding mountains and a chainsaw sculpture of a bear holding a welcome sign. There’s Aspen Art Museum’s AIR festival, helmed by the miraculous Nicola Lees, for which an overwhelming number of talks and performances (including Barney’s) are planned. Two art fairs will open shortly. And the week’s finale will be the museum’s auction and gala…
Read Johanna Fateman’s full Aspen diary here.
8. How Do Book Covers Really Get Made? Three Designers Tell All
Can you picture the last cover that made you pick up a book? Even without reading the jacket, there’s plenty to be gleaned from this approximately 6-by-9-inch space. There’s the splashy neon type of a thriller, archival paintings that frequently cover novels by literary It girls, and, well, evocative illustrations on the front of nearly every romance. These days, however, cover designers are also facing unprecedented pressures. To discuss the thrills and challenges of this highly visible but often overlooked job, CULTURED gathered three leading practitioners—Sandra Chiu, Chip Kidd, and Rodrigo Corral—for a candid roundtable discussion.
Read Chiu, Chip, and Corral in conversation here.
Catherine Lacey wades into the current cultural muck and comes out not necessarily baptized, but certainly reborn, in The Mobius Book, her fifth book and first work of hybrid literature. Open the volume from the front and you are faced with a novel, turn it over and upside down and you are reading a memoir. If critics have accused The Mobius Book of lacking “narrative stability,” “uninterested in giving us security by way of form,” perhaps that’s because the narrative forms most easily available under a post-Christian capitalist patriarchy are suffocating in their simplicity. On the heels of her book’s publication, Lacey called Emmeline Clein from her home in Mexico City to discuss crying in public, the improbable potential of asking for help, and the surprising emails she’s been receiving from men.
Read Lacey and Clein in conversation here.
10. Here Are the 12 New York Museum Shows You Should Look Forward to This Fall
Even though summer hasn’t fully left us yet, we’re already looking ahead to what we can expect from this fall’s lineup of museum shows. From the swinging ’60s to Bagus Pandega’s interactive modernism, there is plenty to anxiously await. Ruth Asawa is receiving her first posthumous showing at the Museum of Modern Art. Flora Yukhnovich responds to the Frick Collection’s Rococo flourishes. And, we’ve got 10 more recommendations to keep you busy.
Read the full list here.
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