DANUTA CIRCLE
Alex Tieghi-Walker
The curator and gallerist Alex Tieghi-Walker lives with easygoing pageantry. For the past two years, he and his gallery, Tiwa Select, have shared a rented loft in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood—a space that has become a revolving destination for jewel-box exhibitions, seasonal dinners, and quiet nights with his Mexican street dog, Ivo. “For me, the separation between private and public has always been very blurred,” says Tieghi-Walker, whose knack for knitting together creative communities manifested in Tiwa’s earlier iterations in Los Angeles and northern California. Born in London and raised between Italy and Wales, Tieghi-Walker grew up steeped in hands-on exploration: His historian mother’s work took him to ancient Roman archeological sites, and his artist father’s output ranged from ceramics to handmade kites. After university, Tieghi-Walker landed at Nowness and found his way into British artist circles. It all paved the way for a kinetic career that celebrates design-forward craft by way of friendship and curiosity. “I just painted the gallery last week this lovely shade of ochre yellow, and the days following one of the paint redos are always really exciting to me,” he says, ticking through the previous shades of arsenic green and burnt orange—colors that act as an electric backdrop to the earthenware, wood sculptures, and paintings on view. “So much in life is in flux,” he says, so exerting control over one’s own environment—in this case, the domestic sphere turned downtown cultural hub—“is refreshing.”
What projects are you currently working on?
I have a show opening at the gallery on the 2nd of September with Rich Aybar, a Dominican American artist who works in rubber and resin. He’s making a collection of lights and furniture, which I'm really excited about. I'm also curating part of the London Design Festival this year, specifically the Brompton Design District, which encompasses the Royal College of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Design Museum. I’m creating a curatorial theme for the area that design businesses can tie into and am inviting design galleries and curators into various empty spaces within the neighborhood to put on shows in the domestic environment. I’m also organizing a series of talks. And I started writing again, which is nice. I’m working on a series of profiles for Beyond Noise, interviewing some of my favorite female designers. I find reading and writing very soothing activities, and it’s just been so long since I’ve had time to do both.
What is your favorite place to spend time in nature?
My childhood was spent with a lot of time in nature. When we lived in Italy, we used to go for long hikes in the Alps. In Wales, we were always going up into the mountains. Since living in America, I’ve really loved exploring landscapes that I’d never encountered before in Europe—the deserts and rocky landscapes out west. But there’s something very nurturing and life-giving about being in a forest, just the density of biodiversity there. I love the secrecy of being underneath the forest canopy, and certainly in the UK, woodlands have such a magical fairy charm. There’s a reason why, when Disney represents forests in films, there's something very British feeling about them, with all the birds and the animals and the flowers and the little streams running through.
What is your favorite time of year?
I love autumn. I feel like we don’t really get a long one in New York City, but back in Europe, the seasons are very defined—they’re all sort of three months long. I just love that nature has had the entirety of spring and summer to really settle in, and by the time autumn rolls around, it's cooling down a little bit, and the world is ready to get back into hibernation mode. There's something very special about that.
What favorite plant or flower element do you have at home?
I’ve never been a huge houseplant person. When I lived in LA, I used to keep lemon and orange trees in the sunroom, which I loved. Sometimes I really do miss having plants in my house, but they just feel dusty unless they’re in a sunroom for me. That being said, I love going to the flower market. I have a table right in the middle of the gallery with a large vase, and I’ll usually buy oversize branches that last for a period of time. Right now I have almond branches, with these green almonds all over the stems. I just love a big, sculptural arrangement that sort of splits the space into two between the gallery and my home. It does bring in that bit of nature.
What self-care ritual keeps you going?
I love bathing in nature, and I love bathing at home. I use mustard powder in the tub, which I think is a very British thing. It has this sort of minty, eucalyptus-y scent, and it just feels invigorating, like it’s really digging into your skin and doing a whole load of good for you. Being able to lie back, listen to music, and just soak underwater for a minute is really refreshing.
In your approach to wellness, what are you leaning away from and/or toward?
I’ve learned recently that I need to sit down more and just take stock and read. So I ordered a hammock—I’m hoping that encourages me to do that. What am I moving away from? My approach to wellness has never been to overthink it. At the end of the day, I probably have practices that people would see as unhealthy and then practices that are a lot healthier than the way other people live. I’m very active and eat very well, but then I smoke and drink. I feel it balances itself out in the long run.
What helps you get energized?
I’m very lucky to do a job that I love. That’s not to say there aren’t trying moments, but for the most part, being able to work with interesting people who are working with their hands and being able to think about how to curate those works and create a space that gives people joy, that gives me a lot of satisfaction. I absolutely hate the business side of things—that’s pretty common. But my work keeps me pretty energized. And honestly, you have to have stamina to live in New York.
What keeps you unplugged from the internet?
I’m quite an analog person in general. My friends are always really surprised that I don’t have WhatsApp, and I’ve never had any music apps like Spotify. I mean, I’m a total Instagram hoe, but that’s it. I never take my phone or my laptop to bed. I’m pretty good at staying unplugged from the internet.
When have you cried because something was beautiful?
I cry quite regularly with beauty. I remember very distinctly going to visit the Huntington Gardens in LA, maybe 10 or so years ago, and seeing the cactus garden there for the first time. That was a very visceral experience. I cry during films. There are so many challenges that we face in life, and when you see someone in a film facing a challenge but then sort of breaking through, I think there’s always something quite fantastic about that. That certainly hits me quite emotionally.
What is your sun sign—moon and rising, too, if you want to share?
I’m actually a triple Sag, so sun, rising, moon. I feel very Sag. I’m very energetic. I’m very restless. I’m very adventurous. That has its downsides, too. Sometimes I can be a bit of a know-it-all; sometimes I can be a bit flighty. I follow my astrological path and feel that it sort of rings true.
