How White Cube New York’s Gallerist Is Changing the City's Art Scene
Above: Sukanya Rajaratnam at White Cube New York.
Last fall, when the prestigious London gallery White Cube opened its first public space in New York City, it tapped a trailblazer with an unorthodox path in the industry. Growing up in Sri Lanka, Sukanya Rajaratnam didn’t consider art an obvious career choice. Instead, she studied economics at Cambridge and went to work in investment banking, specializing in underappreciated assets. Now, as global director of strategic market initiatives at White Cube New York, she’s leveraging her business background to shine the spotlight on unsung artists.
Rajaratnam made the move from finance to the art world with an unpaid internship at Christie’s auction house, where she started by writing catalog copy for the evening sales. She went on to spend 15 years at New York’s Mnuchin Gallery, 10 as partner. “I was in a unique position to see the value in underrepresented artists,” Rajaratnam says, her work driven by mission as much as the market. That eye helped boost the careers of artists such as the late Ed Clark, Alma Thomas, Sam Gilliam, and David Hammons.
Opening March 13, her first show at White Cube celebrates Black American artist Richard Hunt, who passed in December 2023. It’s the first major New York exhibition on the Chicago sculptor since the Museum of Modern Art held a retrospective of his work in 1971. “Whether it’s putting on a show for an artist who’s been overlooked or bringing a new voice to a collector so that their life is enriched and becomes more diverse, I’m drawn to the collective humanity of the art world,” Rajaratnam says. “This is such a wonderful and privileged thing for me to be doing."
This story originally appeared in the March 2024 issue of ELLE DECOR.
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