Art & Design

See the Art That Tavi Gevinson Collects

Show Us Your Wall

By JOHN ORTVED

Tavi Gevinson in the living room of her Brooklyn apartment, which includes a framed piece by Jenny Holzer (upper left), a publicity still of Catherine Burns in the Frank Perry move “Last Summer” (top, center) and a photograph of Ms. Gevinson dancing at a Fashion Week after-party (right). Adrienne Grunwald for The New York Times

In Tavi Gevinson’s living room, hanging several feet above a pale blue couch, is a poster of a Jenny Holzer work that starts with these seven words: “Change is the basis of all history.”

Ms. Gevinson has been going through changes ever since her Style Rookie blog, which she began at 12, made her a star in the fashion world, winning her front-row seats at Dior and Rodarte. In her teens, Ms. Gevinson shifted her focus more overtly toward feminism and literature, starting her online magazine, Rookie, and then, after high school, to performance, acting in several Hollywood films and on Broadway, in “This Is Our Youth,” and “The Crucible.”

“I’ve been documenting so much of my life,” she said. “And acting allows me to experience time — it’s clichéd now — in a very present way.”

Now 21, Ms. Gevinson is working on the next issue of Rookie Yearbook, the platform’s print version (which just celebrated its sixth anniversary), managing Rookie’s online content, considering film and stage offers, directing a short film and writing her own book, a first-person effort that sounds like a memoir. This January, Rookie will publish the first in a series of anthologies, “Rookie on Love,” with contributions from Hilton Als and Emma Straub.

Ms. Gevinson lives in a one-bedroom apartment on a high floor in a new building across the street from the Brooklyn Academy of Music (with rent paid in the form of promotional social media posts). On the walls of her living area and bedroom are the works of young artists — friends of Ms. Gevinson’s from high school or teenagers she’s featured in Rookie. Near her kitchen, above a large mood board, is a framed, multipanel drawing in blue ink of about three dozen young schoolgirls. The apartment also has a few images of Ms. Gevinson: a portrait by the illustrator Adrian Tomine; strips from a picture booth; and a large photo of Ms. Gevinson and her best friend, the photographer and director Petra Collins, dancing at a New York Fashion Week party. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

How do you see Rookie evolving? Are you going to be Oprah for teens?

Oh my god, I want Rookie to be the biggest multimedia platform for teenage girls in the world. A lot of teens just take to social media, but I think that’s because it’s just what’s available. There can be something so much better, and they are wildly underserved.

The two panels with girls in blue ink — that’s from one of your Rookie contributors?

It’s by Calla McIness, who was 16 when she made it. It’s done with three different types of blue ballpoint pen. There’s a place called Teen Art Salon in Long Island City, where Isabella Bustamente has created a space for teens to come by after school and have their own shared studio. I like what Isabella told me about Calla: “She just wants to be alone with her thoughts and make things.” I was like, “Oh, remember making art when you were a teen?”

“Blue Girls With a Number,” by Calla McInnes. It was drawn when Ms. McInnes was 16 and part of an after-school program in Queens called Teen Art Salon. Adrienne Grunwald for The New York Times

What’s with that framed Post-it with the word “chutzpah” written on it?

I was reading about “A Star Is Born,” the Streisand one, and how her boyfriend or hair stylist or someone wanted to direct it. He had no experience directing. And she said something like, “He had such chutzpah,” and it made me realize I could do anything. That just reminds me to have the confidence of a white straight man.

Your portrait by Adrian Tomine, how did that come about?

I loved his books in high school. My friend Wendy, who owns a zine store in Los Angeles called Ooga Booga, sent me some original issues of Optic Nerve, the comic that Adrian did. I interviewed him for Rookie, and then we stayed friends. He made me that for my birthday.

A black-and-white portrait of Tavi Gevinson by Adrian Tomine (lower right) was given by the artist to Ms. Gevinson for her birthday. Adrienne Grunwald for The New York Times

The Jenny Holzer poster — “Untitled (Change Is the Basis)” from the “Inflammatory Essay” series — did it come at a particularly significant time?

I was going through a very big change in my life. I’d moved to New York to do “This Is Our Youth” and it had ended its run. Up until then, I was in the cocoon of that community and my castmates, and living with Petra. The play ended, our lease was up, and it coincided with a breakup. I just needed a boost and to feel like change is a good thing. You could say it’s tongue-in-cheek.