Dasha Zhukova has spent her life supporting art — and now she is hoping that life will imitate art.
“Being around thoughtfully curated art enhances your mood, it lowers depression,” she told me. “There are actual therapeutic benefits.”
Zhukova — who is on the board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and Gagosian Gallery, and founded Moscow’s Garage Museum of Contemporary Art — has a passion for paintings, sculptures and immersive installations that is far more than just a sophisticated hobby or interest in collecting a pricey asset.
And that effusiveness is the impetus for Ray, the real-estate development company she hopes will combat loneliness, foster creativity and make art a central part of residents’ lives.
“This is about integrating culture and architecture into our everyday life in a way that fosters community and belonging,” Zhukova, 44, tells me of Ray, which builds out multi-family residential buildings featuring artist studios, exhibition spaces and collections of original art by emerging and renowned talents.
“The community and the connection piece is so important… we’re trying to really create a singular shared experience around the arts,” Zhukova said.“There’s a growing loneliness epidemic, especially among young people. One of our goals at Ray is to be a place where people can gather … where they can share experiences.”
To date, Ray (and, by extension, Zhukova) has put up most of the equity for its projects. But as the portfolio grows and starts to stabilize, she may bring in outside investors. Zhukova also purchases or commissions most of the art works and loans them to the buildings.
The company, based in New York, often partners with local developers — like LMXD in Harlem, where Ray opened to residents last month — to secure financing, draw architectural plans and oversee permits and construction.
The designs are “a little more bold and daring than other multi-family builders,” Zhukova said, and she stays “hands-on with programming long after we open so as to ensure that our vision continues to add value over time.”
Programming at Ray Harlem, which will include gallery exhibitions and artist tutorials, starts later this summer. At Ray Philly, which opened in 2023, the offerings include collage-making and ceramic workshops as well as solo exhibitions for local artists in its gallery space, Studio 105, that is open to the public. “Raúl Romero: Sound Check,” is on view now.
The latter — Ray’s first project — opened two years ago in Philadelphia’s South Kensington neighborhood, a once industrial area that has seen a vibrant arts scene emerge over the last few years. The building features Rashid Johnson’s installations in the lobby and five ground-floor commercial studios that artists and small businesses can lease, as well as one space devoted to an artist-in-residency program.
Ray’s Harlem location was developed in partnership with National Black Theatre (NBT), which owns 27,000 square feet of space in the building for its theater and offices and displays its African art collection throughout Ray.
Rental prices are pretty standard for a new development in New York City — studios are $2,700 per month and two bedrooms go for $4,800 — and a quarter of the units are considered affordable housing.
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While Zhukova hopes artists will live there, tenants are also from professions including medicine and law
A new location is set to open in Phoenix next year, while one in Nashville is under excavation with a target launch of 2027.
Zhukova and her husband, shipping heir Stavros Niarchos, live in Manhattan with their three children. She also has a son and daughter with her ex, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. (Her mother, Yelena, is the wife of Rupert Murdoch, the Chairman Emeritus of Post parent company News Corp.)
Launching Ray has been an all-consuming project, she said. But she is optimistic it will impact people’s lives in a meaningful way — and even compared Ray to a museum you can live in.
“There are many ways to be creative with space,” Zhukova added, “and I think a residential building can absolutely be that.”
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