Carl Gambino and Sarah Ivory at home, where collecting is inseparable from daily life. Painting by Sholto Blissett | Photo: Gloria Kilbourne

The art world can be challenging to navigate for non-insiders, and even more so for a young couple entirely new to the world of collecting. Yet research suggests that humans are instinctively driven to collect objects, images and other aesthetic traces that come to reflect a life, its movements and its memories. Carl Gambino and Sarah Ivory’s collecting journey began organically, as they brought back artworks from their travels—souvenirs not only of places, but also of human encounters, as they often sought out local artists. That early, unformed approach to collecting eventually evolved into something more deliberate and ultimately became intertwined with their professional lives and their growing family.

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Observer met Gambino, who’s in real estate, and Ivory, who’s in interior design, in their two-floor riverfront home in Brooklyn Heights. Both are in their early forties, and they moved into the property with their two kids just a year ago. Even so, everything about their home feels not only highly curated in terms of the dialogue between art and furniture but also carefully calibrated and seamlessly integrated into the lived rhythm of a family home.

“We already had an existing collection to place, but I tend to move very fast when it comes to design in general,” Ivory, who curated the interior, said. “I also know that the art we bring in is almost always very colorful, so I try to keep the surrounding palette fairly neutral. That way, the color can really come from the work itself.”

Vibrant palettes and lively compositions dominate many of the works on view, punctuating the clean, minimal interior with vivid notes. The architecture favors neutral tones and warm materials, allowing the art to take center stage. “Sarah always loved incredibly colorful art. I was on a very colorful-art kick for many years, too, though lately I’ve found myself drawn to darker work,” Gambino reflected.

Much of this chromatic energy emanates from contemplative landscapes, lush forests and harmonious floral compositions—sometimes figurative, sometimes abstract—that engage in a quiet dialogue with the park’s greenery outside, coming alive as they are bathed in natural light.

A lyrical work by Tianyue Zhong, characterized by harmonious layers of nature-inspired abstract brushstrokes, is elegantly encased within a custom-made library. The structure also accommodates smaller artworks and design objects. “I wanted to create something special for Carl’s favorite piece,” Ivory explains, noting how the setup also facilitates frequent rotation, since smaller works can simply rest within the structure without the need for drilling. Still, works have already rotated multiple times throughout the house, as they try to display all that they’ve collected over the years at one point or another.

Carl Gambino grew up in New Jersey in an Italian American family, while Sarah Ivory was raised in Miami by a Colombian mother and an American father—both environments offering limited exposure to wild, expansive nature beyond the tropical coastlines. That untamed natural world is something they’ve both longed for. “I think we both love Europe, and we love being there. And I think we’re drawn to that feeling of nature in the work,” Ivory notes.

If contemplation of nature recurs across the collection, another equally present thread is found in intimate moments and fragments of daily life, often centered around........

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