Arianna Nourse is the San Francisco-born, London-based founder of Life Imitates, a creative production company that sees art as a curative technology. She supports art that defies stereotype and heals those who come into its orbit, and works with artists and collectors in a bespoke, integrative mode.

In the noughties, Nourse studied 20th Century Art under Benjamin Buchloh at Columbia University, quite liked it, and switched majors. She began her career in earnest at Phillips in New York, where she produced myriad auctions and exhibitions over seven years and became the 200 year old company’s first Black female specialist in contemporary art and photography.

Nourse is of Black American and Brooklyn Jewish heritage, and was raised to believe that all people have a right to agency and peace. She is a member of Black femme dealer collective Entre Nous founded by Courtney Willis Blair, reads speculative fiction, and has pink hair.