Chanel Connects – Live from the Guggenheim: Sarah Sze, Julie Mehretu and Yana Peel
Date: September 24, 2025
Host: Yana Peel (President, Arts, Culture & Heritage, Chanel)
Guests: Julie Mehretu, Sarah Sze
Setting: Live conversation at Guggenheim Museum, New York
Episode Overview
This special bonus episode of Chanel Connects brings together preeminent contemporary artists Julie Mehretu and Sarah Sze in a candid conversation with host Yana Peel. Set against the energetic backdrop of the Guggenheim, the talk explores the formative impact of New York on their lives, accessible art, the evolving role of institutions and community, the challenge and thrill of working at architectural scale, the power of abstraction, and the responsibility—and hope—of women artists today. With anecdotes, memorable quotes, and mutual admiration, Mehretu and Sze reflect on creativity, privilege, and their commitment to expanding opportunity, especially for the next generation.
Key Discussion Points and Insights
1. New York as Artistic Catalyst
[00:42–05:14]
- Both Mehretu and Sze arrived in New York in the early 1990s, a vibrant time for the arts.
- The city provided a unique, democratic access to culture and institutions—often through free gallery nights and open museums.
- Mehretu noted the transformative effect of the Whitney and formative shows like the 1993 Biennial and Thelma Golden’s landmark “Black Male” exhibition.
- Accessibility at institutions like the Met and the Whitney allowed aspiring artists to immerse in art regardless of means.
Quote:
“I think that if you go into the arts, fundamentally, art saved your life somehow. ... I was painting every night and I was just yearning for it.”
– Sarah Sze [02:00]
Quote:
“The Whitney offered this very... it was a very different energy happening there. ... I learned a lot about the world, but where I went to school... we didn’t have the MCA in Chicago at that time... So, like, it is such a different world.”
– Julie Mehretu [03:09]
2. Commitment to Access & Institutional Change
[05:14–06:58]
- Mehretu discussed her philanthropy: supporting the Whitney’s initiative for free admission to those 26 and under, democratizing access for a new generation.
- Both underscore the class and economic barriers that can inhibit access to art spaces, advocating for free or affordable entry to foster future creators.
Quote:
“If you really want [culture] to evolve and grow, we have to have... Young people need to be in these institutions... Having access to those institutions is crucial.”
– Julie Mehretu [06:04]
3. Early Institutional Experiences & Advice for Young Artists
[07:12–08:21]
- Sze’s earliest shows were facilitated by established women artists like Cindy Sherman and Laurie Simmons, offering lessons in generosity and the value of patience.
- Both artists opted for slow, deliberate engagement with the gallery system, emphasizing the long game over quick success.
Quote:
“A couple of the artists... said, ‘Don’t join a gallery right away... do a show at White Columns.’ And it was a great idea to slow it down.”
– Sarah Sze [07:23]
4. The Studio: Creative Space and Philosophy
[08:21–09:32]
- Sze describes her studio as multifaceted—featuring zones for video, sculpture, painting, and collective gathering—reflecting her multidisciplinary practice.
- For Mehretu, securing a studio with natural light (after years in dark, cramped spaces) was transformative. The environment itself shapes artistic growth.
Quote:
“I like to think it’s like Bauhausian in that... there’s the sculpture area, there’s the painting area... there’s the public art area.”
– Sarah Sze [08:26]
5. Monumentality, Architecture & Creative Fear
[09:32–12:31]
- Both artists frequently create at architectural scale for museums, airports, and public spaces.
- Mehretu describes the exhilarating “falling out from under you” feeling at the start of large projects—a blend of terror and creative potential.
Quote:
“There's always this moment of, like, it feels like the ground is falling out from under you... and all he sees is the ocean for as long as you could imagine. That’s almost what it feels like at that beginning.”
– Julie Mehretu [10:18]
- Sze sees her work as creating intimacy and fragility against monumentality, even within large-scale public projects.
Quote:
“For something that’s like a sculpture or a painting that’s really large... trying to create a kind of intimacy and a kind of fragility against the monumentality.”
– Sarah Sze [11:17]
- When discussing her Guggenheim retrospective, Sze emphasizes the importance of dialogue with the building and the “filmic” shifting of perception as visitors move.
6. The Power of Abstraction
[12:31–14:47]
- Mehretu asserts abstraction’s radical, liberatory potential and its blurring with representation. She challenges binaries in painting and culture.
Quote:
“I don’t believe really in this full binary between any form of representation and abstraction. I feel like they’re much more intertwined.”
– Julie Mehretu [13:46]
- Sze highlights how, in today’s “age of the image,” painting (as a tactile, handmade form) asks new questions about memory and meaning in a digital world.
7. Community, Collaboration & New Models
[15:00–16:43]
- Mehretu co-founded Denniston Hill, an arts residency and collaborative community in upstate New York—a model for collective making and learning outside isolated studio practice.
- Sze shares her plans to build a foundation that enables artists to travel, learn, and grow without pressure to produce, focusing on heightened sensory experience.
Quote:
“For me, it’s the world as a studio... your senses are heightened when you’re in another country... And that kind of heightening... is actually something I’m really interested in doing in the work.”
– Sarah Sze [17:02]
8. Challenges in a Changing City and Art World
[18:04–22:52]
- Mehretu reflects on the widening gulf between poverty and extreme wealth in New York; calls for “drastic new solutions” and sees artists and new, grassroots spaces as sites for potential.
- She identifies today’s young artists as leading a shift—forming new spaces, languages, and criticism in response to broken systems.
Quote:
“The more and more we see that... the more and more you’re seeing these kind of interesting new inventions take place. And that happened when we were coming up. Hip hop was like, we were raised on that.”
– Julie Mehretu [20:53]
- Sze addresses AI in art: lauds the irreplaceability of human unpredictability, skills of the hand, and physical presence.
Quote:
“The threat to creativity... we are the thing that’s not predictive. The hand is... The things that make us human and not AI are actually only more valuable.”
– Sarah Sze [22:13]
9. Towards Inclusivity & Hope: Advice for Women Artists
[22:52–26:17]
- In response to Yana Peel’s invitation for advice to young women, Sze and Mehretu express gratitude for their female mentors and emphasize mutual support.
- Mehretu champions the next generation’s challenge to gender binaries and advocates for holistic, inclusive approaches to agency and empowerment.
Quote:
"I think we just have to be. We have our superpowers, and that’s a lot of, like, capability and love and kind of the way that we orient ourselves with our communities and our families... being as open as we can to all the different women that are out there in the world and being as open as we can to our brothers out there."
– Julie Mehretu [24:34]
Quote:
"Women supporting each other, it’s so important... I think we really do owe a debt to them for that."
– Sarah Sze [24:02]
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
-
On artistic necessity:
"If you go into the arts, fundamentally, art saved your life somehow." — Sarah Sze [02:00] -
On institutional generosity:
“I, along with some other people, gave a contribution to the museum to be able to pay for free 26 and under, no matter where you’re from, at the Whitney Museum.” – Julie Mehretu [06:45] -
On creative fear and scale:
"It feels like the ground is falling out from under you... and all he sees is the ocean for as long as you could imagine." — Julie Mehretu [10:18] -
On the irreplaceable value of human art in the age of AI:
“We are the thing that’s not predictive. The hand is. That’s why painting is interesting now, because painting is the hand.” — Sarah Sze [22:19] -
On gratitude and role models:
“I’ll start by just thank[ing] the women who paved the way for me... They were amazing role models, and they were incredibly generous.” — Sarah Sze [23:59] -
On generational change and hope:
“One of my favorite things about this next generation is how quickly they’ve done away with the gender binary and how much they’ve shown us how conservative so much of what we took for granted...”
— Julie Mehretu [25:01]
Timestamps for Key Segments
- 00:42 – 05:14: Upbringing, move to New York, institutional impact
- 05:14 – 06:58: Access, philanthropy, making museums free
- 07:12 – 08:21: Early shows, mentorship, practical advice
- 08:21 – 09:32: Descriptions of personal studio spaces
- 09:32 – 11:50: Working at architectural/epic scale, challenges and process
- 12:51 – 14:47: Abstraction’s role and the tension between representation and form
- 15:00 – 16:43: Deniston Hill and building art communities
- 18:04 – 21:33: The changing New York art world, new models, the necessity for invention
- 21:51 – 22:52: AI’s impact and sustaining human creativity
- 22:52 – 26:17: Women in the arts, advice, inclusivity, final reflections
Tone and Style
The conversation is reflective, candid, and at moments playful—marked by the deep mutual respect between Mehretu and Sze, and animated by their belief in art’s capacity for change. The tone shifts fluidly from the personal to the political, from gratitude for mentors to advocacy for new paradigms in the art world. Practical, generous, visionary: the artists offer both an honest reckoning with the challenges for contemporary creators, and a hopeful vision for renewal led by young artists, collectives, and women everywhere.