“I like to do shows that are different,” declares Lisa Perry. And her new show at Onna House — the East Hampton space that had a pop-up at The Royal Poinciana Plaza in Palm Beach earlier this year — is no different.
Titled “A Cut Above: Extraordinary Work Made From Paper,” the show features the work of nine female artists all utilizing paper in ways that trick the eye. Among them are sculptors Laura Moriarty and Ruby Palmer, Yuko Nishikawa, who creates intricate wire mobiles from paper pulp, Eileen Braun, who knits out of old McCall’s dress patterns (“It looks like fabric,” says Perry), and Linda Miller who’s work mimics ceramic.
Perry founded East Hampton’s Onna House in 2021, after restoring a 1960s modernist home and re-imagining it as a space to showcase women artists and designers. “The idea of showing art in this house, is that I want people to be able to see immediately how to live with it. It’s not left to the imagination at all,” she explains, noting that each room is able to have a different feel. Even in the Palm Beach pop-up, which was a more traditionally gallery space, Perry set up small vignettes. But it’s the artists and their work that is truly the draw.
“I have a lot of those same customers who love Onna House in East Hampton, they came to the Palm Beach Gallery. I didn’t change what I’m doing. Our vibe at Onna House is celebrating emerging art with craft. And it’s elevating craft to fine art…I think that it’s very fresh,” she says. “Walking into Onna House everybody says, ‘Wow, I love this vibe that like immediately relaxes me.’ They’re feeling the hands and the hearts of women. That’s what happening in both of these spaces. And that’s why people have embraced it so much. It’s just very different, our own unique vibe. But it’s because of the women artists. Their work creates that very calm, peaceful, beautiful vibe. We were able to capture it in Palm Beach and then certainly at Onna House.”
“A Cut Above: Extraordinary Work Made From Paper” is on view at Onna House in East Hampton from May 25th to July 14th. Visitors are welcome by appointment only. Click here for more information.