Page 26 - Reside Magazine Lusk Associates

Artistic Habitats

of Los Feliz, she has painted vibrantly colored, fresco-like portraits inspired
by the kind depicted on Tarot cards—yet based on real figures from her family.
Others have banished their own work almost entirely, preferring to keep
a strict separation between studio and sanctum. This is the case with Indian
artists Subodh Gupta and Bharti Kher, internationally acclaimed for their
sculptures and installations—Gupta’s often incorporating everyday objects
and Kher’s exploring themes of identity and mythology. The couple tell Atencio
Demirdjian that while they often bring art home from the studio, they choose
not to fill their house with it completely. Naturally, a few pieces live in their
new-build apartment in the outskirts of New Delhi, but for the most part
they have chosen to populate their house with antiques and work by other
artists. According to the couple, they see the primary purpose of their private
domain as a place to welcome friends and family,
especially in the form of intimate dinner parties.
The home of prolific South African artist
William Kentridge—renowned for his evocative
charcoal drawings, stop-motion animations, and
multimedia installations—similarly centers
family. But unlike Gupta and Kher’s blank-slate
apartment, Kentridge’s Arts & Crafts-style
Johannesburg house comes steeped in history.
The artist’s parents bought it in 1964 when he
was just 9 years old. After moving away and
starting his own family, he returned to the house
in the late 1990s with his wife and children,
where they have been living ever since. Of all the
homes in the book, Kentridge’s feels the most
inextricable from his practice—likely because
of this history. He tells Atencio Demirdjian of his
teenage years when he attempted—and failed—
to build a makeshift studio in the garden. Later
on, he turned the living room into his personal
workspace, becoming the fulcrum around which
his family revolved. Today, the living room is an
inviting retreat, with several shelves of bronze
sculptures from his 2017 “Lexicon” series
presiding over heaving bookcases, a handsome
hearth and several comfortable sofas.
Then there is the Rio de Janeiro home of
Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto, known for his
large-scale experimental installations, which, as
Atencio Demirdjian writes, “make or remake
connections between the body and the mind,
between ourselves and our surroundings, between
different individuals, between humankind and

Previous page: Artist Raqib Shaw’s London
home is decorated with his collection
of bonsai and his own work, including
a sculptural piece on the coffee table
Right: Subodh Gupta’s unnamed oil
painting, circa 2019–20, hangs in a corner
of his living room
Far right: Claire Tabouret hand-painted the
tarot ceiling above her mezzanine library,
also decorated with a 2020 self-portrait of
the artist with the family dog, George