THE FUTURE IS FEMALE AT THIS PALM BEACH POP-UP
“Can you name five female artists?” is emblazoned across Onna House founder Lisa Perry’s t-shirt.“I wear it to be provocative,” she laughs, although her angelic smile disarms any panic that this celebrated designer and art connoisseur might judge an imperfect answer.
“The reality is that top of mind, most people can’t come to five women artists, only Georgia O’Keefe or Frida Kahlo,” she proclaims, “Isn’t that crazy!?” This simple revelation elucidates the essence of what Perry hopes to accomplish at Onna House, a space devoted to creating visibility for the multidisciplinary artwork of females. Even Perry, who along with her husband Richard have been touted as some of the most preeminent global art connoisseurs, admits she was shocked to realize she could only name a few women in their own collections. “We started with 60s pop art and there really are a small number of females in that space so I could count on one hand the women in our collection.” Onna (the Japanese word for woman) House is the catalyst to changing that not only for the Perry’s but the broader aesthete.
The original gallery was born during the Covid pandemic in East Hampton, when Perry “rescued” a modernist property that awakened memories of her childhood home in suburban Chicago. “I wasn’t even sure what I was going to do with it,” she confesses. After closing her eponymously named fashion and design label, Perry craved a return to the daily inspiration germinated from a creative space and knew under this one roof she could somehow marry all her passions of art, architecture, design and helping women. Lovingly restoring the house in a Japanese style served her food for thought as she realized how marginalized and underappreciated the work of female Japanese artisans has been. From there the concept to showcase female creatives exclusively unfolded organically with a spotlight on those working with materials commonly relegated to less recognized genres called craft and “women’s work” rather than art. Perry’s debut curation, blurring these lines, included tapestry, textile, and jewelry and was met with overwhelming enthusiasm for both the artists and the concept.
“Every artist has a story,” says Perry, gesturing to the wall behind her where Amy Dov’s ceramics hang like pendant necklaces, “and so we like the work, and then we meet the artist and hear the story, and we fall in love with the work.”
Realizing the nontraditional gallery could make a tangible difference to women, and Perry knew that she needed to multiply her efforts to provide a platform for this generation of artists, adding more mediums and more artists to the roster at the Palm Beach pop-up. “If we sell one piece of pottery, that can help them pay their studio rent for the month or take time with their kids and give them flexibility and freedom to continue what they are passionate about, so I know we are making a difference.”
Even the playlist at Palm Beach Onna House reflects this ethos, and with Joni Mitchell and Stevie Nicks on repeat, Perry greets the seemingly endless stream of viewers entering the gallery. It is unclear who she does and doesn’t know intimately, immediately dismantling the notion that art galleries must be intimidating and exclusive. The price points intentionally span a broad range in the hopes of making artwork more accessible to a spectrum of clients.
“I think that people walk in the gallery in Palm Beach, and they say, ‘wow, my stress level just went down’ and what they are really saying is that they are waking into a space that is all about the work of women, so they are feeling the hands and hearts of the women. It’s just a vibe, I truly believe that.”
Onna House
Pop Up Gallery through April 1
Royal Poinciana Plaza
Palm Beach Florida
50 Cocoanut Row
