Lisa Perry has long championed women throughout her illustrious career, a highlight of which involved launching an eponymous womenswear collection that embodies the spirit of vintage 1960s couture. Though the New York multihyphenate has also become known for realizing fanciful interiors with vibrant artwork and bold pops of color, her latest endeavor is far more understated. She recently restored a Modernist glass-and-steel home designed by German-émigré architect Paul Lester in East Hampton and plans to inaugurate it as a serene sanctuary for female artists and designers to realize their full creative potential.
The property, named Onna House after the Japanese word for “woman,” will function as a non-traditional gallery and studio space that will showcase a rotating selection of work by female artists and makers, hand-picked from both around the world and in the neighborhood. “At Onna House, our focus is on women artists,” Perry says. “It’s been a delight to see their touch on textiles, ceramics, weavings, pottery, paper, photography, painting, sculpture, and furniture—each has crafted something truly beautiful and surprising. A main goal of ours is to foster visibility and help the artists sell their work, highlighting those who have been under-recognized and who deserve to be known and celebrated.”
Onna House is opening over Memorial Day weekend with a solo exhibition by Mitsuko Asakura, a Japanese textile artist whose striking, intricately woven tapestries complement the home’s clean-lined architecture and bucolic setting. (Also on view is a compelling collection of pieces by the likes of Anna Karlin, Mary Little, Nina Cho, and Natalie Munk.) Perry’s ultimate goal for the property, however, is to develop a residency where artists live in the guest quarters and make new work, which will then be showcased through a series of solo exhibitions.
