In the Studio is a portrait project that explores how women and non-binary artists sustain cultural production within the shifting urban landscape of New York City. The project moves away from exhibitions and finished works to focus on artists inside their studios, the spaces where art is made and maintained.

New York is globally recognized as a center for arts and culture, yet the labor that sustains this identity is often unstable and unevenly supported. Women and nonbinary artists continue to face structural barriers in representation, resources, and visibility. Many of the artists in this project are first- and second-generation immigrants working in shared studios, subsidized residencies, or temporarily affordable spaces across multiple boroughs, navigating rising rents and limited institutional access. By photographing artists alongside works in progress and studio environments, the project foregrounds cultural labor as a daily practice rather than a public spectacle. The studio becomes a site of negotiation between private making and public visibility.

The project asks: Who produces culture in New York City, and under what conditions? How do immigrant women and nonbinary artists reshape the city’s cultural ecosystem through sustained, often unseen labor? Rather than portraying artists as exceptional figures, In the Studio positions them as cultural workers and storytellers of their own creative processes. These portraits collectively map a network of creative labor across boroughs, revealing how art production persists through collaboration, resilience, and shared space.

Artists make New York, not only through institutions and exhibitions, but through the everyday work that unfolds behind studio doors.

Courtesy of Artists: Dale Kaplan, Nicki Cherry, Shuyi Cao, Bat-Ami Rivlin, Destiny Belgrave, Victoria Manganiello, Mulan Fu, Marne.