Being a hot young artist in New York used to mean being British (and having a bar stool with your name on it at the West Chelsea bar Passerby). But now it's all about being related -- there's a wave of up-and-coming artists with very familiar names. Meet the families . . .

• Sophie Crumb, 20, daughter of Robert (pervy creator of Fritz the Cat). Sophie did the cartoons that Thora Birch's character draws in Ghost World. Currently has a piece in "Something, Anything," a group show at the Matthew Marks Gallery. Any anxiety-of-influence issues? "My parents are in a totally different world," she insists by cell phone from an Italian campground. "I'm not really with people who know my dad's stuff."

• Mirabelle Marden, 23, daughter of abstract painter Brice. Not an artist but a dealer -- her new gallery, Rivington Arms, is devoted to young artists who have not shown elsewhere. Could not be reached because (in the great art-world tradition) she's spending August on a remote Greek island.

• Lola Schnabel, 22, daughter of the Falstaffian Julian. Paints and works on films and loves to go out (just like Dad). Also makes T-shirts. Her work popped up in an InStyle shoot of actress Annabella Sciorra's apartment -- alongside a painting by her father.

• Isca Greenfield-Sanders, 23, daughter of photographer Timothy, granddaughter of painter Joop Sanders, and niece of sculptor John Sanders. Compared by the Times to Gerhard Richter. "I started studying with my grandfather when I was 7," she says. Her June show at Lombard-Freid sold out three days before it opened. In February, all four Sanderses will have a group show in Miami. Could Isca outshine Papa? Eighties art operator Mark Kostabi writes that young artists looking to get ahead should sidle up to Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and "be happy that you've met the father of the great artist."

Related:

• Archive: “Gotham: Life in the New City”
• Articles by Amy Larocca
• Table of Contents: Aug 19, 2002 issue of New York | Subscribe!