Artist Eteri Chkadua not too long ago threw a joint party for herself and her brother.
Stefano Giovannini
Whereas the common renter shells out greater than $2,400 a month to reside on this nook of Brooklyn, the residents of Bedford-Stuyvesant’s most costly constructing don’t pay a penny.
The landmarked, 10-bedroom John C. Kelly property at 247 Hancock St. turned and stays Mattress-Stuy’s priciest-ever property when a mysterious LLC paid $6.275 million for it in 2018. As an alternative of occupying the 41-foot-wide, 7,533-square-foot palazzo-style manse himself, although, the nameless new proprietor invited a gaggle of grateful Georgian artists to shack up there rent-free.
“I had no thought about the home, I simply talked about that I used to be unsure what I used to be gonna do — perhaps I’ll return to Georgia — and he was like, ‘Why don’t you keep in the home?’ ” Eteri Chkadua instructed The Submit of the fateful dialog she had with the property’s proprietor, who can also be her previous buddy and an artwork collector.
The Submit has confirmed the person, a Georgian resort magnate, is the home-owner, however he declined to remark for this text.
It was autumn 2020 on the time, and the 57-year-old painter had lastly been let again into the US after 5 months caught throughout the COVID-closed borders of Vietnam. She had been calling to ask if he was nonetheless all in favour of a portray of hers when he provided her the hire deal of a lifetime.
In November, Eteri and her brother moved into the manor. “No one was dwelling there, and it was filled with packing containers, like a warehouse,” she recalled. The second ground quickly turned her studio. Her brother went under.
“It’s like being in that century,” Eteri’s brother, Gocha Chkadua, instructed The Submit of dwelling within the previous home, which was in-built 1887. He has stuffed its cavernous basement with “Alien Bloom” — his glow-in-the-dark recycled flower creations, created from plastic cups, umbrella handles and different detritus. He lets Eteri select the flowers’ colours.
A subterranean set up of Gocha Chkadua's glowing flower creations at 247 Hancock St.
Gocha's "Alien Bloom" set up within the mild.
The house is stuffed with authentic particulars and its residents' paintings.
Though alone at first, over the previous 12 months, the siblings have turn into housemates with an ever-changing roster of creatives, most of them Georgian nationals. Eteri lists them: There have been the 2 artist couples — an actor and his mannequin spouse, together with a chef and her photographer boyfriend, all buddies of the proprietor — who stayed till a couple of months in the past, a Dutch author, a professor from Berkeley and numerous others. Numerous friends. A French photographer is coming later this month. Typically, the proprietor stays — at the moment, his son resides there. Nobody pays hire.
Along with making the outer-borough palace right into a work-live area, Eteri has additionally used it to quench her insatiable want to throw dinner events.
Friends at one among Eteri Chkadua's many dinner events.
One in all many Georgian feasts Eteri has ready for friends.
The comfy gathering was saved to only a couple buddies as a result of present COVID-19 surge.
“In Georgia, we make large events, and when you will have a visitor, you must have a dinner,” she defined of her deep love for internet hosting and feeding kindred spirits, a lot of them current strangers.
“It was very film set to me, very paying homage to the dinner events, say, Salvador Dalí would throw — the salon-style,” commented one recurrent visitor, the neo-conceptual artist and 37-year Greenpoint resident Richard Humann, who met Eteri via his artwork supplier. “I haven’t actually been in that state of affairs in New York in 20 years, give or take, so it was refreshing to be at a cocktail party with different artists who don’t know one another.”
Within the winter, Eteri prefers to host friends within the Corinthian-columned front room, however within the hotter months, she makes full use of the house’s non-public park-sized yard.
Associates collect for one of many many occasions Eteri has organized within the gigantic yard.
The house's yard on a sunny summer season's day.
The occasions are free -- Eteri doesn't cost for admission, and all are welcome.
A yard efficiency on the manse.
There, she has held screenings, showings, sound occasions, efficiency artwork showcases and extra. Typically, random individuals wander away the road to benefit from the leisure and lounge amid the landscaped gardens.
Not too long ago, Eteri held a small joint party for her and her brother, who's one 12 months and 5 days her senior.
As with something that exists in NYC for lengthy sufficient, although, the handle has had many lives, and was not at all times as tony as it's within the current second: Its earlier proprietor, Jamaican-born advertising govt Claudia Moran, purchased it for $140,000 in 1986, and it was as soon as an SRO. In its 134-year life, it has additionally been the scene of a Sharon Stone movie shoot and hosted former-President Grover Cleveland.
A current dinner visitor walks the bottom ground's halls.
One in all many rooms off the primary gathering space.
Eteri's second-floor studio area.
To Eteri’s information, there isn't any finish in sight for its present incarnation: The proprietor — whom she speaks of in reverent tones — has no plans to develop, promote or in any other case do something with the constructing. He has many kids and buddies in New York, she defined, and likes with the ability to present them with a spot to remain awhile.
Nonetheless, whereas there’s no lease to expire, Eteri’s gatherings have ephemerality to them, an aura that nothing gold can keep.
The Hancock Road area, and the events in it, have a way of “pure happenstance,” an “misplaced feeling,” mirrored Humann. Certainly, that such an ornate and large constructing in one among America’s hottest actual property markets ought to at the moment be principally in use as a setting for the festive whims of 1 sociable painter is one thing of a New York miracle.
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