Week in the Life: Daria Brit Shapiro

	(Photo: Thomas V. Hartmann)
				Daria Brit Shapiro is PR Director for the SCOPE Art Show, Curator of A.M.F. Projects, and a self-proclaimed “critic of everything” working in contemporary art, music, fashion, design, and beyond. When I first met Daria for a coffee to chat about SCOPE and how we might work together on a feature for stated, I couldn’t decide if she was the most skilled raconteur I’d ever come across, or simply a ceaselessly charming, obviously whip-smart, and exceedingly energetic young woman whose work-a-day life was a series of adventures with people from every imaginable creative field. In any case, I discarded the idea of an interview and instead asked Daria to journal and take photographs for a week, so that readers could get a real sense of the frenetic, at times improbable life she leads. She agreed. Daria seemed to be as curious about her serendipitous career path as I was, and she admitted to struggling to find a title that best described what she does. She recently settled on “Cultural Engineer,” which works quite well for someone who advises hip hop artists and painters, major art shows and smaller organizations, and who is able to balance relationships with art industry decision-makers and outsider creatives. More than that, she’s uniquely capable of linking these disparate constituents and helping them find ways to collaborate. Up to now, Daria’s been busy putting the spotlight on her own clients with curated exhibitions that have been featured in The New York Times, Art in America, BlackBook, Artnet, The Miami Herald, Artinfo, Time Out NYC, Bravo TV, HGTV, and all major networks. She’s also written for BlackBook magazine, Flavorpill Miami, and NY Arts Magazine. We’re very pleased to shine the spotlight in Daria’s direction for a change to show readers what a typical week entails for a “Cultural Engineer.”  - Scott Chappell, Co-Founder/Editor
				(Photo: Thomas V. Hartmann)
				Today was warm enough for my tri-color motorcycle jacket: heralding the new official beginning of my week. First on agenda was a meeting with Sunny Qiu—introduced to me by curator Koan Jeff Baysa, whose recommendations are gospel. NY Liaison for Chinese Collector’s Convention and International Art Advisor for the Today Museum in Beijing, Sunny Qiu is an art market virtuoso, and we had a date for breakfast at Doma in the West Village. I invited Mollie White, Show Director at SCOPE Art Show, wunderkind of the emerging market, to join us. At the moment, I am directing the PR effort for SCOPE New York, which opens March 7 and I figure these ladies will be fast friends, since Scope has…its eye on the future. Breakfast in the picture window was double espresso, Greek yogurt with dates and honey. In a conversation that ranged from staggering statistics to visions of the future, I learned that anytime you see a girl under 30 in China driving a red Ferrari, she’s a mistress. And all I could think was: is it ever too early for a red Ferrari?
				(Dates @ Doma, West Village)
				(Mollie White, Me, Sunny Qiu in the rain.)
				Park Slope brunch with painter and NY Arts editor Jason Stopa. Homemade corn tortillas at Palo Santo accompanied by multiple one-dollar mimosas. Jason asked me a few questions for an article he was writing on SCOPE in NY Arts, then we wandered the boutiques on Fifth Avenue, attempting to find either: 1) something NOT made by a “local artist” or 2) a vintage jacket under $100. Failure is tiring: I needed a nap.
				(Brunch with Jason Stopa at Palo Santo, Park Slope)
				Saturday Night: Birthday party for the husband of artist and friend Marci MacGuffie is the excuse for a vintage purple Betsey Johnson dress with a vintage white fur and orange leather gloves.
				(Jonathan Schipper & Amelia Biewald’s studio, viewed from street)
				Gluten-free pizzas with my friend Allie, then down to the subterranean Greenpoint home of artists Amelia Biewald and Jonathan Schipper. These two live in their studios, out of which they make their artwork and manufacture the Exovault: a metal iPhone case, which I carry in rosewood and brass. This place is a wonderland of oddities, aquariums, and inspirations: now equipped with a hot tub, within which simmers a “man stew”: painters John Elliot, Frank Webster, Greg Hopkins, and Eric Benson.   Eric Benson tells me about his recent residency and his show opening in Madrid, then he pals it up with Allie. I sought out the sangria in the kitchen and ran into painter Victoria Neel, art advisor Franklin Boyd, and the performance artists I had worked with as an independent curator, Jennifer Catron and Paul Outlaw. A mixed media and installation artist I have worked with, Marci MacGuffie, is serving never-ending sangria from an electronic cooler. The great thing about the Exovault is that after several sangrias, you can drop them repeatedly and the floor would break before your iPhone could.
				Tomorrow will see me at four meetings back to back in three different Manhattan neighborhoods. Today I must relax. Long morning walk with my dog, Herman, my Brussels Griffon/Shih Tzu hybrid. I meet up with my friend Chris Rel (pronounced “real”), an emcee, actor, and aspiring director, whose third album, Night Like This, will be released in March. We go to the movies: Sherlock Holmes. Next up is Chinese food, a preview of his new song, (which I loved) and an inspiring chat about his recent tour to Africa.
				(Chris Rel on Brooklyn Promenade)
				(Herman Ethel Merman)
				Computer from 6AM, immersed in emails for sponsorships, partnerships, art shipments, events, and the like. First meeting: I helped to facilitate a SCOPE screening of the Documentary film, New York is Now, at The Soho House. Directed by Noah Becker, this film is currently in production of its part two, for which I am being filmed later in the week. Lunch at Peels in the East Village with Wall Street Journal writer, Kimberly Chou; she is infectiously fashionable. We discuss SCOPE, the art world, the art market, and so on—followed by a fruit salad.
				(Me & Noah Becker, Publisher of Whitehot Mag and Director of New York is Now.)
				Another day on email, phone, Skype: making swell things happen. It’s not magic. It’s a lot of work. Evening with the vibrant Monica LoCascio from Paper Mag, who will be opening a brilliant gallery, restaurant, and design store hybrid on Avenue A in a matter of months. I will be curating the design shop and I have been hunting down interesting artist editions. We go to Nice Guy Eddie’s on Avenue A: Monica’s friend Todd, a screenwriter and chef, just took over and has instituted a crab night which is becoming a huge hit. We run into gifted video editor Jacks Genega and talented musician Vanessa Bley, from the band Twin Danger. Vanessa recounts her discussions with Courtney Love about joining her on tour. I am looking the other way as I tear the crab in half.
				(Crab Night at Nice Guy Eddie’s)
				More email, more phone, more Skype. Then most of the day installing artwork in a collector’s home with artist Brent Birnbaum, whose work I showed at SCOPE Miami in my A.M.F. Projects booth. Birnbaum’s neon work, “That’s what (s)he said.”, (the “s” in “she” blinks on and off), was acquired by an interesting couple who live on Central Park West and have an apartment full of the most exquisite Annie Leibovitz photos.
				(Brent Birnbaum’s That’s what (s)he said)
				Brent and I head to a meeting with Danika Druttman and Matt Semler at The Lab Gallery, a performance space at the Roger Smith Hotel in Midtown. I am curating one of Brent’s performance projects, “The Bureau of Apology”, which will open at The Lab on April 5th and feature Birnbaum in his defunct 80’s office, typing apologies on official Bureau letterhead for walk-in traffic. For a reasonable fee, Brent Birnbaum, clad in a purple suit, will even make house calls in official Bureau capacity to apologize on your behalf. Don’t shoot the messenger.
				More email, more phone, more Skype: I partner SCOPE with Whitehot Magazine and The New York Observer. I chat with Sebastian at the impossibly fun Le Bain at The Standard to plan SCOPE’s first view after party on March 7th. And then my day hits a high note: Lainie Love Dalby calls. Lainie is the artist and interfaith minister that I will be showing at SCOPE New York, and she is walking me through her booth concept. Lainie’s installation, called The Diamond Den,” is aiming at igniting all “12 senses” to induce self-transformation. The Diamond Den also features daily performances from Lainie and her collaborator Lynsey Peisinger (who also works as Marina Abramovic’s choreographer), along with sculptural works, interactive sound pieces, and even signature scents. Dalby aims to help the viewer “live their best life”; the good reverend will be available for consultations.
				(Lainie Love Dalby)
				(Lainie Love Dalby. Photo: Kristy Leibowitz)
				The usual email, phone, and Skype cycle is interrupted periodically by the hair, nails, makeup, wardrobe ritual in which I am indulging before being filmed by Noah Becker for New York is NOW. I decide on the sweater dress, booties, and chocolate shirred mink fur—I was being shot outdoors, in DUMBO, on a dock. I am not sure what I am supposed to be talking about, and Noah gives much guidance, but he is invoking the name: Cassavetes, so I roll with it. Holding an empty soda cup prop from a Brooklyn Heights pizzeria, I just start talking: all about why I believe in the art world and simultaneously do not.
				(Director Noah Becker frames a shot)
				(Shadows on the promenade)
				(Photo: Thomas V. Hartmann)
				Visit Daria at: www.DariaBritShapiro.com www.scope-art.com @dariabrit