Annabelle Weatherly, New York It Girl, manifests magic and community at Sitting Room Gallery

Annabelle Weatherly in her studio, 2026. Portrait by Sabrina Santiago

By SIVAN LAVIE  July 1st, 2026

Annabelle Weatherly is a model, artist and It Girl in the city. Working alongside the Sitting Room Gallery team, Shahnti O’Neill, owner and founder, and David Welch of Problem Child Advisory, director, as well as her friend, curator Victoria Hope, she weaves magic in the gallery’s barbershop-aesthetic storefront, and in the white cube basement gallery. 

Annabelle Weatherly. Butterfleye Fire Sigil, 2022. Embroidery, fabric paint and ribbon on printed velvet, 3' x 4'. Photo by John Vetromile

In the street level gallery, Magazine Spell dazzles the eye with psychedelic tapestries. A Kabbalistic tree of life, asterisk scintillation shapes, circular, angelic, infinity abstractions softly embroider sunset painted tapestries, outer space constellations, pastel rainbows that transport the viewer into a world of spirituality and magic. At the crux of the show is the artist’s deep magic practice, in which she creates sigils, symbols for manifestation of wishes. The show is accompanied by a passionately written repetitive style text that explains what sigils are, how to create them, and gives many examples from the artist’s life where she manifested qualities into her life through this magic practice. The text is written in a secure and calm voice, gently narrating a lifestyle in a fairly convincing way. She describes how the practice brought her success in her modelling career, drawing opportunities into her life through investment of energetic forces in her desire and wish for success as a model. 

Annabelle Weatherly, Truth Kiss (heaven on earth sigil), Embroidery on velvet print, 22”x28”. Photo by John Vetromile

Annabelle Weatherly, Rainbow Star. Embroidery on velvet print, 22”x28”. Photo by John Vetromile

The artwork adds to the magical atmosphere, emitting a sparkly aura that draws you into this world full of promise, sincere faith in a devout practice of magic. Aside from the tapestry, Weatherly’s practice includes collage, explores the layering and peeling back of magazine pieces, which she describes as a practice that echoes her own in a model, her body exposed to the public both physically and in print, and yet other parts of herself are hidden, revealed through this beautiful artwork.

Annabelle Weatherly, Earthrise, 2025. Mixed Media on Printed Fabric, 3.5'x5'. Photo by John Vetromile

In Sitting Room’s second, downstairs, gallery space, Weatherly and Hope curate a charming group show of emerging artists. The opening felt like a party, skater kids and punks, models, youthful energetic excitement alongside some familiar and established faces appear in the crowd. More than just a group show, Weatherly breeds a social scene, a sense of belonging, summer fun, and community of authentic, earnest young artists paving their way in the New York artworld, brought together by this magazine magic. 

Right: Xavier Franctz, model, actor, performer. Friends at Magazine Spell and Diary Face opening party, Sitting Room Gallery, 2026. Photos by Matt Weinberger

Left: Lily, musician. Right: Comet and Taraneh, musicians. Friends at Magazine Spell and Diary Face opening party, Sitting Room Gallery, 2026. Photos by Matt Weinberger

The use of words and lettering reappears in Diary Face, as well as aura-like rainbow technicolor and the exposure of bodies, all echoing Weatherly’s upstairs show in a plethora of symphonic voices that are not only committed, but also great and promising artists. The amalgamation of these sensitive and exciting works cocreates a woven tapestry of community, each balancing and giving ground to all the other works, as great friendship and community can.

Left: David Welch, curator and Sitting Room director. Right: Victoria Hope, curator, and Annabelle Weatherly, artist and model.  Friends at  at Magazine Spell and Diary Face opening party, Sitting Room Gallery, 2026. Photos by Matt Weinberger

Jo Barajas presents three compelling graphite drawings in airbrush style, depicting a bent over woman in Self Portrait, a hand bound by a leather belt being painted with nail polish in Sister, and a woman in Lifelong Pariah lies on the road, staring at the sky in a grassy ditch next to a flipped over car. The pieces together portray a freedom, an LA nightlife energy, hedonistic carelessness that projects a synth-pop, dark disco, cinematic, Hollywood ambience.

Jo Barajas, Self Portrait, 2026. Graphite on paper. Photo Courtesy of Sitting Room Gallery

Montana James Thomas’s The King Jam Party is a visceral text based work invoking a feverish, lavish action. An imagined slather of jam drips a multisensory experience, delivered in meticulous graphite post internet styled slanting font, creating both physical and imagined  movement. 

Montana James Thomas’s The King Jam Party, 2026. Photo by John Vetromile

Levi Japhet’s piece is a sincere diaristic installation of his lived experience in the past few years. Drawing from the worlds of Beat poetry, analog techniques, drawing from observation, journaling, and life drawing, Japhet creates their own universe of observation and reporting, using his friends and beautiful strangers as models, sources of inspiration, givers of gifts and shared experience that are all divulged beautifully in a generous display of journal pages, typewritten poems and stories, analogue photographs, strung dried flowers, collected objects, and a beautiful oil painting in Niña de Portales, a depiction in carefully painted and etched oil paint that slows down time, giving our eyes the luxury of just looking. 

Levi Japhet, Para Nico, 2025. Mixed media. Photo courtesy of the artist

In an evocative performance, the artist Harley Jade Walker walks nude into an acrylic box, her body wound in a layer of clear tape. She sets off confetti canons while inside, indulging in a sensual private party in which she maneuvers in the tiny space, rolling her body around in flexible poses, accumulating a dress of rainbow confetti that she eventually wears as she exits the box and steps back into the opening party. 

Harley Jade Walker's performance at Diary Face's opening party, Sitting Room Gallery, 2026. Photos by Matt Weinberger

Paintings that add to the colorful, party spirit of the show include Ruth Merwin's oil painted faces floating atop sunsets and night skies, Prince Palace's neon colored cartoonish scenes, Stella Romano's Making Music embroidery, Bobby Moebed's Deep Throat blinged out necklaced portrait, Amanda Sachs' atmospheric rainbow watercolored Bunny, Bailey Storms' Make No Provisions For the Flesh silkscreen on synthetic hair, Shigeru Gallagher's interesting subjects of airbrush paintings,and Lori Weatherly's minimalist, haunting watercolor abstraction.

Ruth Merwin, Particia 2, 2026. Oil on canvas. Photo courtesy of Sitting Room Gallery

Amanda Sachs, BUNNY, 2026. Watercolor on watercolor paper. Photo Courtesy of the artist

Diary Face installation view. Sitting Room Gallery, 2026. Photo by John Vetromile

Weatherly ties the show together with a sigil altar, created in collaboration with the artists of the show. She asked them their desires and wishes, and with candles, symbols and jewelry beams a party infused intention into the heavens to help further her hip, fresh New York community.

Left: Kelsey Collins, actor, with Levi Japhet's work; Right: Trace Black and Jo Barajas, artists.  Friends at Magazine Spell and Diary Face opening party, Sitting Room Gallery, 2026. Photos by Matt Weinberger 

Right: Nate Turbow, artist. Friends at Magazine Spell and Diary Face opening party, Sitting Room Gallery, 2026. Photos by Matt Weinberger 

Magazine Spell, a solo show of Annabelle Weatherly’s work & Diary Face, a show curated by Annabelle Weatherly and Victoria Walter, with works by Amanda Sachs, Alex Saucedo, Bailey Storms, Bobby Morbid, Bone, Dakotah Malisoff, Ezri Appel, Harley Jade Walker, Hudson Mona, Katherine Aucherlonie, Jacques Derby, Jo Barajas, Levi Japhet, Lori Weatherly, Maggie Kosater, Meg Yates, Montana James Thomas, Nate Turbow, Prince Kobe, Ruth Merwin, Shigeru Gallagher, Stella Romano, Thahabu Gordon, Trace Black, Victoria Walter, Willa Hut, WickandWax and Myx Lee. WM

Magazine Spell and Diary Face

Sitting Room Gallery

195 Henry St, New York 

Open through July 12

Wednesday-Sunday 12-6pm