
Art Born from Ruin | The Emotional Abstractions of Karina Gentinetta
Karina Gentinetta’s journey to becoming a celebrated abstract artist was far from linear—but every step shaped the emotional force behind her work. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Gentinetta immigrated to New Orleans with her family at age 11. The daughter of devoted parents determined to see her succeed, she earned honors degrees from Tulane University and Tulane Law School, embarking on a 13-year career as a corporate litigator. But in 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed her home—marking a turning point that would lead her to choose a different kind of rebuilding: one rooted in art.
What began as a design venture soon led to painting, when Gentinetta was encouraged to add large-scale modern works to her showroom displays. Her first canvas sold for ten times what she expected. Drawing inspiration from Cy Twombly and Franz Kline, her early works—often executed in black and white using house paint, plaster, and varnish—channeled the fractured beauty of a city and a life transformed. Her compositions soon evolved to include color, expressive gestures, scribbles, and mathematical markings—each piece a layered expression of spontaneity, control, vulnerability, and resilience.
The Logic of Beauty | The Emotion of Form
Gentinetta’s paintings are visual diaries—intimate, raw, and rigorously constructed. Working with materials more commonly found on a job site than in a studio, she responds symbolically and texturally to destruction, endurance, and rebirth. Her works move between stark and soft, bold and tender, balancing the tension between the rational mind of a former lawyer and the liberated hand of an artist. Whether in pale, meditative fields or charged monochrome bursts, her canvases tell stories that don’t end after a glance.
Her pieces now reside in private collections around the world—from Manhattan penthouses to historic European estates. In 2016, Gentinetta collaborated with RH Modern on a limited-edition series that quickly sold out. Most recently, she was commissioned to create a permanent collection for the new RH Paris flagship—a luminous space where her textured abstractions now live alongside some of the brand’s most iconic design pieces. Yet despite her commercial success, she remains self-represented, maintaining a showroom at the Gallery at 200 Lex in the New York Design Center. Her work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, Luxe Interiors + Design, House Beautiful, Veranda, The New York Times, 1stdibs Introspective Magazine, and more. Through it all, she continues to channel the duality of her roots—Argentine passion and New Orleanian resilience—into a practice that honors both fragility and strength.
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RH Paris Permanent Collection

At RH Paris, only a select few artists are featured throughout the entire building—each chosen with exacting precision to complement the Maison’s atmosphere of quiet grandeur. Among them, Karina Gentinetta stands apart, occupying an entire floor with her evocative abstract works. As the Financial Times notes, “Art is used to elevate the mood throughout the building. On the lower level will be the work of Argentine abstract artist Karina Gentinetta, while Yugoslavian-born neoexpressionist Vladimir Prodanovich’s painting of dancing figures hangs on the ground floor. The upper-floor restaurants also feature art: in the second-floor entrance of Le Jardin RH is the work of Swedish artist Sara Bergman and paintings by Jean-Marc Louis hang in the fourth-floor restaurant Le Petit RH.”









A Work of Heart

‘Unbreakable Thread’ stands as Karina Gentinetta’s most personal and cherished work—a raw, gestural meditation on connection, resilience, and the invisible ties that bind us. Layers of movement and emotion unfold across the canvas, where restraint meets release in a palette of earthen tones and intuitive linework. For Gentinetta, this piece embodies both vulnerability and strength—a deeply intimate reflection she holds closest to her heart.
Now part of the RH Manhasset permanent collection, Unbreakable Thread was recently placed in the new space that opened October 2025. The acquisition was made by the interior designer who has collected Gentinetta’s work for RH since 2016—a trusted collaborator who continues to recognize the enduring resonance of her paintings within RH’s world of design and atmosphere.

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