On a recent Sunday afternoon, Lisa Perry is at Onna House, the modernist 1962 Paul Lester Wiener house in East Hampton she acquired, restored, and transformed into a showcase for lesser-known women artists and designers. Through September 7^th, Onna House presents its final exhibition of the season called “Supernatural Beauty” and featuring Lisa Eisner, Adriana Meunié, Tamiko Kawata, and artwork by Saskia Friedrich, Lisbeth McCoy, and Setsuko Morita.

“Each artist is doing something completely unique, which is what spoke to me,” Perry said. “From Tamiko Kawata’s work – turning ordinary household objects such as safety pins into extraordinary works of art – to Lisa Eisner’s bold, brilliant, one-of-a-kind jewelry… This show is a very exciting one with lots of discoveries to be made.”

Perry’s mission embodies the empowerment of such female creatives. The CFDA member – herself a lifelong advocate for women’s rights with decades of support for Democratic politics and women’s organizations – was inspired to create this special place after acquiring the house.

“The modernist house restoration came first, then the question of what to fill it with struck me,” Perry said. “I realized this could be the perfect place to combine all of my passions under one roof: modern architecture, art, design and helping women. Onna means woman in Japanese and naming the house was a great starting point for the journey.

“Onna House is a wonderful platform and environment for exhibitions and the Hamptons attracts some of the best collectors, gallerists and museum directors in the world,” she added, “so many wonderful people see and discover new work at Onna House.”

Perry’s own background, she explained, is in textiles and she had always been drawn to non-traditional art forms, ie. weavings, ceramics, and interesting objects.

“I like texture,” she said. “The very crisp, angular architecture of Onna House is the perfect place to show this type of work, which softens the hard lines. That’s what I focus on.”

She finds artists in a myriad of ways, from her travels, to Instagram, to galleries and artists that are frequently recommended to her.

“We are seeing a lot of work recently and Onna House isn’t large, so we have to be very discerning,” Perry offered. “We like to have a geographic mix as well – we show work by local artists and artists from all over the world, bringing their unique perspectives to the Hamptons. We put together three shows every summer season and we like to showcase a variety of mediums and geographies.”

Asked about visitor takeaways, Perry said she hoped for collectors to start to “recognize, respect and add the work of women artists to their own collections, realizing that women artists have been overlooked for way too long.”

A second takeaway speaks to the house itself. She hopes “for people to recognize the value, excitement, and gratification in saving an architectural gem and if they can open it up for people to see and enjoy, even better!”

OnnaHouse.com