It was Saturday night, behind a facade decorated with graffiti of her downtown creative space and gallery, Atelier Jolie, Angelina Jolie was having a conversation with artist Shirinne Shatt.
The topic was smart: refugee light-form, women's rights, ways to cover meaning from exile. The value of all art. Jolie was elegant in ether in a cream dress with an embroidered caplet. “I'm so happy to be with you guys,” she told the 50 or so guests invited. For her, being an artist was a way of communicating. “I'd like to know if you're feeling the same pain.”
Jolie listened enthusiastically to Iranian visual artist and filmmaker Neshat. “Art doesn't come from intuition,” Neshat said. “It has to come from the life you guided. It has to do with the world.”
The reception features famous people like musician Jon Batiste, author Suleika Jaouad (his wife) and chart-topping rapper Jack Harlow mixed in the artwork. Sufi dancers in Crimson gowns circled between the tagged walls.
And Jolie, an Oscar-winning actress, humanitarian and object of global appeal, was not a pivotal center of attention. That's exactly how she wants it. “I want to see what other people are making,” she said. “It's part of my creativity.”
For about a year, she has been working to incorporate Atelier Jolie into the hub of artists, makers, chefs, students and Broadway stars. The building comes with an almost unparalleled artistic pedigree. 57 Great Jones Street was once owned by Andy Warhol and was home to Jean-Michel Basquiat, who had a studio until his death in 1988.
Jolie's dream was for the space to once again become a cultural place, an inspirational international creative clubhouse, and a magnet for the curious masses.
As she imagined, it didn't work anytime soon. “It was tricky,” she said in a recent interview. “I realized that this is a lot of work to do.”
Its first incarnation was as a pop-up fashion studio for visiting designers. “Because I think it's the most interesting thing in the world,” she said. “People are focused on fashion.”
“But,” she added. “It was very immediately clear that it wouldn't be my love,” she even rejected the environmental impact of the typical fashion cycle. “I don't want to tell people that I need to buy something new every few months.”
There she swung, enlarged the web and shared footage of the rarest New York merchandise, the square. Free.
French multimedia artist Prune Nourry, who helped organize the Neshatt event as part of an exhibition called “Strand for Women,” will become Atelier's artist-in-residence, and expects mammoths to work in the studio on the second floor over the next two years.
The invisible dog, the beloved 16-year-old art space where the original Multi-Story Brooklyn building is being redeveloped, has arrived as a resident gallery. Nourry introduces founder and curator Lucien Zayan to Jolie and he is busy programming shows and growing the community in his new Manhattan neighborhood. He said that during Warhol Basquiat's days, the buildings were also a gathering place. “There was a big communal table in the space. People would always come and chat with me,” he said. “That's exactly what she wanted.”
For Jolie, starting a famous gathering space to start a singular celebrity with a reputation as unknown – a mystery, a famous gathering space seemed like an unlikely move. She was far more prominent in her advocacy for the UN refugee agency, and was a prominent envoy. (She resigned from that post in 2022 more than 20 years later.)
However, in her circle she is known as Connector. Connectors can quickly open your home, provide help and learn one-on-one. She drew, danced and attended silk screening, felt and cooking classes at Atelier Jolie. “I wanted a place where I could spend time with local artists,” she said. She wanted to remind me of the atmosphere of the film set, she said, especially those with crew members from far-flung corners of the world, “you can feel a sense of purpose for others.”
In nutrition, Jolie found another artist working hard for the community. With her nonprofit Catharsis Arts Foundation, Noury plans a monthly talk at Atelier Jolie as part of her residency. First, he painted other search cores, like David Byrne, along with Dr. Rita Chalon, a medical professor and literature scholar at Columbia University and literary scholar who created the field of narrative medicine. The topics vary (though Neshat spoke about Iran's liberation in March), but the themes are similar – whether “art will heal” or not, Nouri said.
Jolie said, “It's like a platform for discussion. It's not ordered.”
Noolee, 40, and Jolie, 49, met almost a decade ago through mutual friend, filmmaker Agnes Varda, after Noolee was diagnosed with breast cancer. Jolie lost her mother, grandmother and aunt to cancer and underwent a preventive double mastectomy in 2013, and recommended nutrition early on. And she co-produced Nourry's 2019 documentary, Serendipity. In this “Serendipity,” Noury photographed his illness through works of art. In an introduction to one of Nourry's books, Jolie recalls being in a studio in Paris, looking at the breast sculptures carved into trees that were split during production. “Isn't that even more beautiful?” Noor asked her.
The bright spaces of Noury at Atelier Jolie (which once housed Basquiat's bed) are filled with anatomical models and books on history. In “Strand for Women,” people all over the world cut a bit of hair in solidarity with the #WomanLifeFreedom movement for women's rights and justice. (Jolie donated some strands with her daughters.) Rock hangs beneath Atelier Jolie, who looks like a mini dress made of hair.
Collaboration is a thread. “It's a kind of rule. You can't just get in for yourself,” Jolie said. “You have to come and be there for other artists too.”
Through Eat Offbeat, Noury held a “archaeological dinner” with Afghan chef Humayun Zadran, who cooked a traditional meal covered in clay. “Everyone had a small hammer like an archaeologist, so they had to break the clay to get their food,” Nooley said. It was an ancient Buddhist monument, a source of national pride, destroyed by the Taliban in 2001, and a reference to the sculpted Buddha of Noorie himself.
Atelier Jolie is one-fifth the size of a 30,000 square foot, invisible dog, a nonprofit that opened in a former factory in 2009. However, Zayan said he and Jolie shared a conceptual blueprint that incorporates performances from the initial conversation. Dieting is considered a form of cultural discourse. I visited the artist's studio. “When you make a piece in space, it makes a huge difference,” he said, “Because you leave your spirit, your soul, into space. It's not simply hanging art.”
Atelier Jolie, a for-profit public benefits corporation (certified B Corp), aims to be social good, but does not charge unseen dogs rent for a year's residency. In Brooklyn, the gallery costs $500,000 a year “just to open the door,” Zayan said. Donations can now support work directly. “We're on track and we're building a new model,” Jolie said of Atelier Jolie's financial outlook, which has an eight-year lease on the building.
Zayan aims to make the invisible dogs a destination like downtown, as was the case in the Bohrum Hill section of Brooklyn. Jolie is an avid partner. They communicate almost every day, he said. “When you email her, you don't know where she is or what time zone she is, but she will answer you right away. She's very involved.”
While fashion is no longer at the heart of the atelier, Jolie gave Zarif a studio stint, a brand still created by Kabul artisans. Together with founder Zolaykha Sherzad, Jolie sketched a capsule collection of embroidered jackets and capes. Jolie spoke of the Afghan team of weavers and tailors, saying that the Atelier was “as a platform to emphasize craftsmanship, their talent and resilience.”
The film still accounts for a large part of Jolie's life, but she has recently spent more time in New York as a producer on gallery and Tony's Broadway musical “Outsider.” Cast members appear in the atelier and help them think about how the space can help younger artists. “It's so exciting to see all these worlds come together,” she said.
When Jolie first saw it in 2023 with one of her daughters, she loved squats and loved the building that recently housed the restaurant (which recently housed it). “I wasn't interested in being on the Upper East Side,” she said, explaining why she searched for a downtown neighborhood in her 20s, when she was studying film at New York University. But she said, “I was scared of history too.” She contacted the Basquiat sisters, gave their blessings to the Atelier, and showed up at the event.
Bonetti Kozerski, the architect who designed the flagship for the Pace Gallery in Chelsea, oversaw the renovations that preserved the graffiti-covered walls by Basquiat and Al Diaz, who created the Samo© tag. Basquiat's early comics are still pasted there. A portal to another New York heritage. The façade changes constantly as Tagger continues to respect.
In this month's conversation, Jolie seemed unhappy with the Atelier being seen as another exclusive downtown boutique. “Everyone should be able to access the act of creation,” she said.
“That's what I need as an artist,” she added. “That's what I want from my kids — to learn, discover, connect, share and play about others.”
She was talking from her hotel room in Manhattan. One of her sons currently lives in the New York apartment she bought in her 20s, a crash pad for his five brothers. Moms are welcome – sometimes. “The other day I said I was going to jump in. She said, “I thought you should clean it for your mother. But how bad is that?” she laughed, and I got a glimpse of the less-studied Jolie my friends know.
“Whenever I see Angie on the field, she loves to sit with a part of that community and just feels part of that community,” said Giles Dury, a British photographer and chef who met Jolie through her work at the United Nations.
Last summer, Dury, who lost both legs and arms to an Afghan explosive device in 2011, displayed images of an inconsistent terrestrial mine at Atelier Jolie. “I gave a lecture there. People are sitting on the floor, sitting on the side of tables and chairs,” he said. “It's certainly not a place full of air or blessing.”
Events with Neshato – International Women's Day – Jolie answered questions from students at Bronx High School and greeted artists from the Middle East and Europe. A 28-year-old Canadian and Sudan musician, friend Mustafa brought rapper Harlow as a guest. He was amazed when Jolie worked the crowd. “This isn't her most comfortable girlfriend,” Mustafa confided, adding that she placed herself there to shine a spotlight on the work of those around her.
As Jolie sips through the gallery room with tea, she pauses to film an unlikely scene. “What do we do sometimes?” she said. A woman's clutch found her place by her side and was urgently hoping to talk about art and behaviorism. “And no, I think this is everything.”
