For these three women, the collection and display of accessible art by lesser-known and emerging artists is central to the design of their homes
ATLANTA | “When I decorate, I don’t necessarily, to be honest with you, have a theme in mind. I just surround myself with things that I absolutely love,” Patrice Alexander said at the beginning of her home tour. A former dental consultant and former shoe boutique owner, the content creator said the things she loves include art, orchid plants, vintage perfume bottles, and coffeetable books. | Video by Homeworthy
AFRICAN AMERICAN ART and culture is a defining aesthetic throughout the home of Patrice Alexander, a content creator in Atlanta, Ga. In 2018, Alexander purchased her townhouse and made it her own with bold design choices. The brick accent wall in her family room is painted black. The botanical print that adorns her the dining room is called Orange Grove from Mitchell Black, a Black-owned wallpaper company. She chose the Forest Green Floral colorway.
In the den, just beyond the entryway, Alexander displayed her latest acquisition, a large painting by Lynthia Edwards purchased at Art Basel Miami Beach from Richard Beavers Gallery, a Black-owned gallery in New York. (The gallery also works with Alexander’s boyfriend/partner, artist Leroy Campbell.) The work depicts three girls in pigtails jumping rope. Interestingly, the other half of the diptych is installed upstairs in the living room.
“I purchased it because it reminds me of my sisters,” Alexander said. “I love the way that she created their hair, how she designed their hair, because that reminds me of how my sisters and I used to wear our hair when we were little kids. Also, the collage dresses. When we were kids we weren’t allowed to wear pants at all. We had to wear dresses every day. So this piece is a great representation of me and my sisters.”
Alexander recently opened her home up to Homeworthy, joining numerous other tastemakers, designers, collectors, and do-it-yourselfers. Homeworthy presents video tours of all kinds of homes, mostly in the United States, and increasingly in Canada and Europe, too. People living in starter apartments and multi-million dollar condos, townhouses, single-family homes, stately homes, second homes, and historic properties invite viewers into their spaces and share nearly every detail of their interiors.
Going room by room, homeowners and renters alike explain their overarching decorating styles, which range from modern and eclectic to maximalist, minimalist, and traditional. The tours highlight the design of their kitchens and bathrooms; explore the main living areas, bedrooms, and outdoor spaces; and share the sources of their furnishings, wallpaper, and rugs, as well as the stories behind their art, collectibles, and dinnerware.
Some tours are 20 minutes long, but the majority are closer to one hour. Watching the videos is definitely a time commitment, but often makes for fascinating viewing for anyone interested in interiors and how people live in their homes.
The videos tours begin or end with a statement about what home means to each person, a Homeworthy signature. “Home to me is sanctuary,” said Patrice Alexander. “It’s a place of refuge. It’s a place of restoration, and a place of love.”
LONDON | “The way that I’ve decorated my home is very much an homage to who I am as an interior designer, but also my home is dressed in the same way that I dress,” Natasha Landers said. “I like lots of color, you know. I think I stand out and the house stands out, as well.” Sharon Walters, Gary March, Yvadney Davis, Marilyn Fontaine, Colin Barnes, and Ibi Meier-Oruitemeka (known as IMO), are among the artists featured in her home. | Video by Homeworthy
EXPERTLY CURATED, the East London home of interior designer and diversity consultant Natasha Landers is rife with vibrant color and art by artists who are her friends. Landers moved into her Victorian townhouse 25 years ago and called it a “doer-upper.” She updated the wiring, installed central heating, and replaced the roof. She also recreated some of the original features that had been removed over the years and complemented the architectural accents with a unique approach to color blocking with paint and modern furnishings and decor.
“I think I’m quite rebellious in nature in terms of how I design and how I decorate,” Landers said. “The biggest color blocking in this room is the ceiling. I didn’t realize how controversial it is to paint the ceiling. Even my mom was like, ‘Aren’t you going to leave the ceiling white?’ I say, ‘It’s my house,’ and I just knew it would work and actually I think it has really highlighted the cornices, the detail of the cornices, by having that light bronze green on the ceiling.”
Landers is engaging and knowledgeable. Her home tour feels like a curator-led tour of a fascinating exhibition space where a survey of British, African, and Caribbean artists is on view. In fact, she opens her house up as a location for photo shoots and also hosts artist exhibitions called “Private Views.” (The next event features London artist Yvadney Davis.) She said the concept is a curated, residential installation that helps buyers imagine how the work would look in their homes. “I’m really fortunate to not only just be able to collect art, but also to know and call artists my friends as well,” she said.
Allison Kenworthy, a former television news producer in New York, founded Homeworthy in 2019. The company tagline is “Every home has a story.” The videos begin or end with a statement about what home means to each person, a Homeworthy signature. “Home to me is sanctuary,” said Alexander. “It’s a place of refuge. It’s a place of restoration, and a place of love.”
About 1,600 Homeworthy videos have been published. On average, approximately two to three new videos are posted to Youtube each day. In 2020, an early video featured the Georgetown apartment of Eric L. Motley, deputy director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Motley, who was serving as executive vice president at The Aspen Institute at the time, showed off his collection of rare books and old master drawings, (His video is only five minutes.)
Over the past couple of years, African American and African Diasporic homes have appeared more frequently, maybe about every two weeks. This most recent month or so, February (Black History Month) and early March, six have been featured. New tours of the homes of three Black women—Alexander in Atlanta, Landers in London, and Nakia Clements in New York—stood out because the collection and display of accessible art by lesser-known and emerging artists is central to the design of their spaces.
Whatever their profession, budget, family size, or stage in life, the common thread is that each takes great pride in their home, curating their spaces with intention in a manner that speaks to who they are.
NEW YORK | Nakia Clements grew up in Boston, Mass., specifically Dorchester. After graduating from Spelman College and taking her first job in Chicago, she moved to New York. Her family background greatly influenced her interest in art, objects, and interiors. Her grandfather was an antique dealer and grandmother was a corporate executive and artist. “She imparted in me my love of home and houseware design and dishes and all kinds of house things and plants,” Clements said. | Video by Homeworthy
IN NEW YORK CITY, Clements is an advertising executive specializing in media strategy. She calls “The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles” (1996), her limited-edition print by Faith Ringgold (1930-2024), the “pièce de résistance” among the artworks hanging gallery-style above her sofa. Works by several other artists, including Frank Frazier, Wendy Kendrick, and Alfredus Williams (1875-1967) are displayed on the same wall. Clements said she purchased the Ringgold print at an auction for “a steal.” A strategic collector, she also visits art fairs such as Frieze and the Harlem Fine Arts Show in her quest for art.
Clements refers to herself as a “pug mom” and “plant mom.” She moved to her two-bedroom apartment in Hell’s Kitchen after living in Harlem for more than a decade. Filled with natural light, Clements’s apartment is decorated with accents of blush pink and home decor featuring Sheila Bridges’s Harlem Toile de Jouy print. Over the years, Clements has acquired an array of paintings, prints, and drawings by African American artists. Among her favorites? Kerry James Marshall. “I really love,” but “cannot afford” Marshall, Clements said. Nontheless, the highly acclaimed artist is well represented in her home.
Books dedicated to the artist, including “Kerry James Marshall: Mastry” and “Kerry James Marshall: The Complete Prints, 1976-2022,” are among the volumes stacked near the television in her living room. When the TV is not on, the screen displays an image of “De Style” (1993), one of Marshall’s most well-known and beloved paintings depicting a Chicago barbershop. A framed poster documenting “Kerry James Marshall: In the Tower,” his 2013 exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, hangs on the wall of her home office. Adjacent to the poster, Clements framed the cover of the September 2020 issue of Vogue, which features a commissioned portrait by Marshall.
Homeworthy house tours feature individuals (on occasion couples show their homes together) who come from all walks of life. However, a good portion of the people Homeworthy features are interior designers and content creators, like Landers and Alexander, in which case the videos promote their brand and potentially bolster their bottom line. Whatever their profession, budget, family size, or stage in life, the common thread is that each takes great pride in their home, curating their spaces with intention in a manner that speaks to who they are.
Alexander, Clements, and Landers share a love for coffeetable books, plants, and cherished family mementos. Most notably, art is front and center in each of their homes. “I’m am a collector of Black portraiture predominantly by Black artists because I like to be surrounded by art that I see myself in,” said Landers. “To me, a home is not a home, my home wouldn’t be a home, without art.” CT
FIND MORE about Natasha Landers, Nakia Clements, and Patrice Alexander on Instagram
FIND MORE In addition to being a content creator, Patrice Edwards said she manages the studio of her boyfriend/partner, artist Leroy Campbell
FIND MORE about artist Lynthia Edwards on her website and Instagram
FIND MORE In 2022, artist Deborah Roberts sued Richard Beavers Gallery and artist Lynthia Edwards citing copyright infringement. The case is ongoing
BOOKSHELF
In Atlanta, Patrice Alexander showcased “Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness,” a monograph of South African photographer Zanele Muholi on the coffeetable in her den. Later in the home tour, she noted that a photo displayed in her living room is an image she removed from Muholi’s book and had framed. At one point, when Natasha Landers of London is showing viewers her bedroom, she holds up a copy of “Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practices of Contemporary Black Caribbean Makers” by Malene Barnett and strongly recommends the book. In New York, Nakia Clements displayed an array of Black art books in her apartment. The coffeetable featured titles such as “Mickalene Thomas” from Phaidon Press, Nick Cave: Forothermore, and “Willi Smith: Street Couture.” There were even more volumes on the credenza near Clements’s television. The selection included publications about women artists, “Faith Ringgold: American People,” “Amy Sherald: The World We Make,” and “Calida Rawles: Away with the Tides,” among them. There were books on photographers, including “Gordon Parks: The New Tide: Early Work 1940–1950,” “Nadine Ijewere: Our Own Selves,” and “Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art.” Several more exhibition catalogs were also featured: “Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces,” “Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America,” and “Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure.”
