The Colonel Louis Watres Armory, built in 1900 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is Slonem’s latest project that showcases the artist’s novel take on interior design—matching vibrant, multicolor interiors with a bricolage of historically potent and rare items found from around the world. This system of “collectorating,” or collecting and decorating, has become Slonem’s trademark and can be found across the artist’s multiple historical properties around the country. Through the course of its century-old lifetime the 102,000-square-foot space has served not only as an armory, but a performance hall for Russian composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff, a whistle-stop for campaigning presidents, and even briefly as a clinic. Gatekeeper: World of Folly walks readers through this masterpiece room-by room, object by object, filling us with the sense of wonder for which the artist is so well‑known. 

Hunt Slonem is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker well known for his exotic and eclectic works, featured in galleries the world over and in collections at the Guggenheim Museum, The Met, the Smithsonian, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. His homes in Louisiana and upstate New York have been featured in The New York Times and Interview magazine. He has previously published When Art Meets Design (2014) with Assouline.
Sara Ruffin Costello is a designer, decorator and writer who lives in New Orleans. Former creative director of Domino magazine, Sara is a frequent contributor to New York Times T Magazine, Architectural Digest, Travel & Leisure, Wall Street Journal, Vogue, and Glamour.