Chai Style Home: Artist Duo in Sunny Yellow

One of Jerry Gardner and Adonis Ampatzis’ favorite pastimes is watching performances in Athens at The Herodion, one of the most ancient theaters in the world. Decorating and owning houses internationally, retired dentist Gardner said, “We prefer our summers warm and our winters warmer,” as their manses have been featured in Town and Country, Architectural Digest, and Conde Nast, which awarded their pool as one of the five sexiest pools in the world.

The couple chose a happy, intense, and passionate yellow for the main living area.

When not in Mykonos, Jerry and Adonis chill in their Midtown condo with skyscrapers on one side and a lemon-yellow extravaganza inside. As if collecting and decorating aren’t enough, both men are artists. And it’s nothing but spiritual to pair a Jewish kid from Walterboro, S.C., with a man from Crete whose family was in the underground resistance.

This setting in the foyer has three works by Ampatzis: (left) “Inner Space,” “Bird in Hand,” recalling nature, and “A Queen with No King.”

Jerry explained, “During the ’96 Olympics, I took a 21-day vacation at age 40, starting in Israel and ending in Mykonos where I met Adonis. The start of a new decade and the start of living my life in color! My pickup line was, “Doooooo youuuuu speakkkk Englisssss?”

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Enter their world of “his/him” in colorful icons.

Marcia: Describe your Midtown condo.
Jerry: It took us five to six months to renovate. We mainly reconfigured the Master closet and added French doors. We resanded, repaneled and repitched so everything would be on one level in a straight line. Our Atlanta home is colorful and comfortable, playful and energetic! Shag white carpet, colors and casual chic feel. Our most unusual item is a collection of religious icons from the beginning of last century made out of tin.
Adonis: Our treasures range from Bali to India and the Paris Flea Market. We like things that pop, like the Beetle diptych in the foyer. It took five minutes for us to decide to buy them. We have Jerry’s grandmother’s burl walnut buffet by his “Life Flight” with an angel flying towards heaven.
Jerry: My brother, Alan, a fine photographer, gave us this 5’ x 5’ mega photo of an abandoned subway station by Central Park as the focal point in the dining room. We have an Erte sculpture in contrast to a very unique piece, “The Nest,” by local artist Annette Josephs. A slice of cultures are the pillows on the couch from Bali, the Jim Thompson House in Bangkock, India, Greece, Tunisia.

The primary bedroom: (far right) “Cutting the Ties That Bind You,” by Adonis. The lamps are from the Paris Flea Market.

Marcia: How do your two artistic styles differ?
Jerry: I’m self-taught and had a gallery show in Greece thanks to Adonis secretly submitting my work to the Mykonos Cultural Committee. While my art is more spiritual, Adonis’ is figurative. He’s had gallery showings in Atlanta, Mykonos, Las Vegas, New York, and San Francisco. We enjoy minimalism and maximalism, brutalism and any style according to location and project. We never have a problem with coming up with unique ideas. My style is influenced by the Woodstock Era where Adonis is informed by classic Greek artists and Latin America painters.
Adonis: My mixed media compositions are very complex. The one in the bedroom is shellac over paper, with mirrors for the eyes with a Greek dictionary as base. Then, 200 nails drenched into “I Nailed It” with subtext of finding it hard to be accepted as gay. On others, I use plywood or even lead. I only create about 10 a year that start at $5,000.

The dining room focus is a museum quality photograph of a New York City subway station taken by Dr. Alan Gardner. Jerry’s mother gave it to the couple as a gift.

Marcia: How does your real estate work?
Jerry: Fifteen years ago, we started investing and developing our own projects from scratch or renovating older ones, designing and decorating. We either sell or rent short-term in tourist areas or long-term in bigger cities and tourist spots. We expanded to Athens and Phuket. Each place has a mezuzah and is decorated uniquely to its location.
Adonis: When we wake up, we can get confused since every three months we are in a different place.

Retired dentist Gardner stands in front of this own work … in the spiritual realm and conscious of the passing of time as, “Life Flight.”

Marcia: You have very different backgrounds.
Jerry: My father’s parents came from Latvia to escape the Russian Army. My mother’s family came from Warsaw. It took 15 years to get the family of nine children to the U.S. via Ellis Island and settled in South Carolina. My grandfather moved to Walterboro, S.C., between Charleston and Savannah, to start his general store. The best experience I ever received was working at his clothing store at age 8. This gave me the confidence to meet strangers, understand customer service, and an understanding of money for my dental practice. I graduated public school as valedictorian, and then Tulane. I took classes in Guatemala and became fluent in Spanish, now speak Greek and Thai. After Emory Dental School, I saw HIV patients while others declined. I was named, “Dentist of the Stars,’’ and mentioned on the 96.6 radio morning show, as “Doc G.” Also, I was the dental expert for CNN’s, “Movie and a Makeover,’’ which is still on YouTube.

This Beetles diptych is a startling close look at nature.

Adonis: I was born in Rethymno, Crete, and studied economics and sociology at the University of Athens. I started as a banker in Mykonos and became a local celeb quickly by running Pierro’s Upstairs, the “Studio 54’’ of Europe.

Marcia: Bottom Line.
Jerry: We had two official weddings — 1996 and 2016 — in our small synagogue, where my grandfather was a founding father, with 13 people on Valentines Day. Then, Adonis wanted his Fat Greek Wedding with 250 in Mykonos with DJ’s, crazy entertainers, lots of food and love. The best of both worlds, exactly like our life. Fairy tales do come true.
Adonis: Yes, our life is looking through rose-colored glasses … at the yellow, a color of passion and happiness.