Prime Real Estate Meets Fabulous Art
Two birds, one stone. At the intersection of two industries hit hard by the economic mess – fine art and real estate – lies a great innovation. Take an empty house on the market, fill it with art (and bubbly), open sesame, and wow everyone.
Jill Lubar and Erin Mackay
Erin Mackay and Jill Lubar, co-owners of The Art Registry, show and sell work by local up-and-comers as well as artists of international renown. It’s an art consulting firm that also runs a gallery, The Gallery at Todd Christofaro, whose J. Ford Huffman show we recently blogged about.
TTR Sotheby’s International Realty’s milieu is fine properties. The two forces joined recently with Isabel Ernst of Ernst Development on her 6,000-square-foot, c. 1875 mansion in Dupont Circle that is currently for sale. The house has been respectfully renovated as a “purist” contemporary interior by Architect Salo Levinas of Shinberg.Levinas, making it a great backdrop for both modern and mid-century art. Their event/opening last Thursday brought in more than 500 people, according to Mackay.
Pardon my poor snapshots – the space is restful and elegant, and I loved the white-and-stainless Bulthaup kitchen.
“[The homes] give us these great blank canvases to work with,” Lubar says. “Instead of staging with furniture, we stage with art.”
The show, which is now appointment only, includes delicate drawings by Baltimore’s Lu Zhang, whose work we’ve admired for years.
Zhang’s “Opera” drawing series based on the beards and headdresses worn by Chinese performers is a perfect fit for a minimalist powder room.
Her “Tile” series is powerful from across the room or up close – the drawings crawl around the sides of the panels.
Another local riser, Natalie Cheung, was a happy find – her powerful (and affordable!) cyanotypes have sold like hotcakes since we wrote about her work in our Fall issue.
From Natalie Cheung’s “Cyanotype” series, made by artfully spilling photo chemicals and letting them dry.
Richmond-based Ron Johnson, who teaches drawing at Virginia Commonwealth University, has several, well, sculpture-drawings up. They’re made of layered acrylic, mylar, and the occasional Sharpie marker scribble.
Two of Johnson’s pieces – the one on the right, Pick Up the Tempo, was created for specifically for this exhibit.
From farther afield: Sensational horse portraits by Roberto Dutesco, a famed fashion photographer based in New York. His series “The Wild Horses of Sable Island” documents feral horses on an uninhabited island off the coast of Nova Scotia, where visitors have to obtain special permission to gain access. The island is famous for shipwrecks, which is how the horses got there in the first place.
Dutesco’s reverent images are usually mounted on aluminum, which gives them a subtle glow from within.
This stunner, Captain, framed in (what else?) driftwood, is Lubar’s favorite.
“These are such special pieces, we’re determined to find homes,” Mackay says. Among the emerging and established contemporary artists, you’ll also see drawings by Picasso and Matisse, prints by Calder and Miro, and a few Andy Warhols – pretty good company if you ask me.
For a complete rundown of the artists and works or to make an appointment, go here.
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