There's a lot of open space in Rachel Lee Hovnanian's Tribeca loft. The palette is light, tchotchkes sparse, and most of the artwork you encounter was made my Hovnanian herself. After all, if you don't want to live surrounded by your work, who will?
For CULTURED, the conceptual artist and painter opened the doors to her sunlit loft—part home, part studio, part personal gallery—to share how she strikes a balance between tradition and contemporary style. It's a question she encounters daily in her painting practice. The Texas-born artist has exhibited everywhere from the Venice Biennale to just down the street at spaces like Leila Heller Gallery and Dinner Gallery.
When her creations manage to come home with her, they find themselves in conversation with the herb garden just outside her open kitchen and the New York skyline visible through her floor-to-ceiling windows. On her kitchen counter, she has a smaller iteration of her monumental sculpture Poor Teddy in Repose, 2024, currently making its way through Italy's public squares. Her work is also included in the New York iteration of Project For Empty Space's cross-country touring exhibition, "Body Freedom For Every(Body)," alongside Barbara Kruger, Lyle Ashton Harris, Marilyn Minter, and others.
We sat down with the artist to discuss her at-home rituals, the relationship between her visual art practice and design style, and the stories behind the works she's chosen to keep close. Hovnanian’s interior philosophy is simple: let the art “sing.”
CULTURED: Do you have any at-home rituals that help you balance work and life?
Rachel Lee Hovnanian: I love to cook. Cooking, I say, is like making art in many ways. My mother ran a cooking school and she was great friends with a lot of artists. I find that I really enjoy having people over and entertaining. I have an herb garden right outside the kitchen where I can just pull out some herbs and, you know, whip up something for my family or friends.
CULTURED: How do you think being a visual artist has impacted the way you designed your home?
Hovnanian: As a visual artist, I want a home for each artwork. So there's always a space where I think, Isn't that a wonderful wall? That would be a beautiful wall to have a painting or a sculpture. I feel very fortunate to have this loft [in a building] where there are many, many artists. In fact, one of my earliest shows was in Soho at David Beitzel Gallery, just around the corner. I'm sort of doing a full circle.
Also, having a loft with lots of light is just fantastic. I want people to be able to look at the artwork and have each artwork tell a story, so as you move through the space, you can always have a conversation with people about the work. It's really important for me to have a little home for each piece, and it creates a story for visitors or for my own.
CULTURED: How does your home reflect your artistic style? Do you gravitate towards the same palette in both?
Hovnanian: I would say [it reflects] a calmness, if that makes any sense. I didn't know this, actually—designers now call it "brown furniture" when talking about antiques. Did you know that? I was like, Brown furniture, what are they talking about? For me, I like things that are old, and I like things that are new. I like each piece to have a story, to be cozy, but also to be contemporary in some ways. So I'm fairly eclectic, but definitely in a calm sense. More zen, I would say. I don't necessarily like a white cube, but I definitely like textures to play into parts. I really want the artwork and a space to be able to sing.
CULTURED: What is the most unconventional or unexpected design choice that you made in your home?
Hovnanian: When we bought this home, it had incredible bones and incredible light. And then I found out it was designed by [Charles] Gwathmey, who my parents were friends with, which was kind of crazy. We wanted to respect his design as much as possible. So, I would say that I kept a lot of the things that he put into the space, which normally I will tend to want to just take away. It had a great flow, a great sense of light, and a completely open kitchen. Having that open kitchen and being messy in just the kitchen is something I've never done before. I'm really enjoying that. Where does everybody want to hang out? In the kitchen! If it's messy, they feel more comfortable.
CULTURED: Do you find yourself curating your space like a gallery or do you prefer a more personal, lived-in aesthetic?
Hovnanian: I'm very fortunate because my husband and I have done a lot of homes in New York, and he really loves design. And I'm always thinking, That's a perfect place for a painting, or, That's a perfect place for sculpture. I think it's important to create a sort of calmness in the sense that the city gives you so much, and there’s this franticness that when you walk into a space, you want a bit of calmness and for your eye to rest on one important piece. When I walk into a space, generally, I like to have one focus, but that might lead you to a different focus, then to another story. So, I think that's a great way of saying it's somewhere in between.
CULTURED: Is there a particularly special piece in your home?
Hovnanian: Well, Blue Valium came from a show called “Happy Hour,” and that particular piece is right across the room from a bar. Blue Valium is the name for a cocktail and that particular show had to do with me growing up as a child of an alcoholic. When I was growing up in Texas, I was a member of the Girl Scouts and one of the things in the Girl Scouts manual was “Be prepared.” So, for Blue Valium, I took an old picture of my parents having a cocktail party and I repeated that picture over and over again. You really have to go into the painting and look carefully to see people having a great time and the story of Dick and Jane. It's very intoxicating in the sense of the color, but it's also deeply personal.
CULTURED: What is an object or a feeling you hope guests will always remember after leaving your place?
Hovnanian: Overall, that they came off feeling that they'd experienced the home of an artist. I mean, a lot of friends have said that they love this space the most. I don't know whether it's because this particular building was originally made of galleries, but it's easy to hang and place artwork there.
