Where better to host the launch of your interior design monograph, than in one of the illustrious homes held within?
That was certainly the line of thinking as the art and design worlds descended last night upon the Gramercy residence of artists Rashid Johnson and Sheree Hovsepian. Guests were invited for a cocktail celebrating the debut book from design duo Ashe Leandro, comprised of Reinaldo Leandro and Ariel Ashe.
The townhouse opens with a high-ceilinged living room, complete with a series of paintings, African statuettes, a golden Simone Leigh figure, and a hanging Louise Bourgeois sculpture. The space, and the overhanging seating area visible from above, are tastefully crowded with eclectic seatings, low-sitting wooden and chrome tables, and a Steinway piano.
On the Manhattan-sized patio to the back, guests—including actor Liev Schreiber, writer Nate Freeman and advisor Benjamin Godsill, artist Chase Hall, chef Andy Baraghani, artist Nicolas Party, gallerist Rachel Uffner, and more—mingled over champagne and canápes from chef Yann Nury.
The studio’s self-titled Rizzoli monograph lined tables, its cover bearing a picture of Johnson and Hovsepian’s art-filled home. Inside, the book features several of the studio’s New York projects—from Park Avenue to the West Village—as well as a forward by client Seth Meyers and afterward by Johnson. If the number of books leaving under guests’ arms is anything to judge by, a few new homes should shortly be in the works as well.
