A conversation with artist Dylan Rose Rheingold on her collaboration with RAY and In Common With, bringing together art, design, and community through a series of hand-painted light fixtures.
At RAY, our mission is to bring art and design into the everyday. To date, this goal has been centered on designing and developing one-of-a-kind residential buildings for renters in cities such as Philadelphia (Philly), New York, and soon Phoenix and Nashville; but we’ve always seen ourselves as a lifestyle brand with potential to not only design buildings, but also the objects that live within them.
In spring 2025, as construction wound down on our flagship project in New York, Ray Harlem, and we completed our FF&E install and curatorial process, we began to consider how we could deepen our relationships with some of the artists and designers that we selected for the building. After a few unwieldy brainstorm sessions we came back to a concept that was originally pitched for Ray Philly, but never came to fruition: what if we commissioned one of the artists that we acquired for Ray Harlem to paint directly on a series of light fixtures from one of our favorite lighting companies?
In collaboration with In Common With and artist Dylan Rose Rheingold, RAY commissioned a limited-edition lighting collection that brought together art, design, and community. The collaboration debuted in November 2025 at Quarters, In Common With’s Tribeca-based concept shop and gathering space where we featured seven hand-painted light fixtures created by Rheingold using In Common With designs as her starting point. Each piece used light to explore memory and lived experience, without losing its function.
The collaboration was created in support of the Ali Forney Center, New York City’s largest nonprofit service provider for LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness. Ali Forney Center recently opened a new shelter, Casa Cecilia––named after the late transgender activist Cecilia Gentili––which has interiors designed by Little Wing Lee, who also worked on interiors at Ray Harlem.
In Common With generously donated the light fixtures, generating more than $36,000 in proceeds directed to the Ali Forney Center’s general fund, supporting necessary services such as meals, health care, and mental health resources. This collectible partnership, which has now sold out, demonstrates both RAY and In Common With’s mutual commitment to design as a force for belonging, imagination, and social impact.
We sat down with Dylan Rose Rheingold on the eve of the collection’s debut to learn more about the artist behind these 7 unique light fixtures and how the collaboration illuminated her practice in new ways. Read on to learn more.
RAY invited you into the conversation with In Common With after acquiring your painting Shoulder stands and tabletop loads for Ray Harlem. How does it feel to see your artwork find a permanent home?
Dylan Rose Rheingold: It’s always an incredibly touching feeling to see my work in the permanent residence of someone new. Seeing the work leave my studio, to be exhibited in a gallery or public space, to someone living with it where they will be interacting daily, it’s a feeling that is hard to describe.
Together, you, RAY, and In Common With have built a shared world grounded in joy and care. How did that sense of togetherness guide your process?
DRR: The sense of community behind this partnership felt so fluid & really seamlessly built a collaborative space where all voices felt valued and heard. Working with a full female team full of energy & ideas in all different directions is always my favorite type of environment to be apart of, especially when coming together for a good cause.
Walk us through how you began your process for this commission.
DRR: I started the commission off with sketching & writing. I was looking through my most recent paintings as well as my archive with a fine tooth comb, searching for what objects & symbols stood out and felt like repetitive pillars in my work. From there on, I started storyboarding and made many thumbnail size drawings to start and create a narrative for each fixture grouping that would work with the paired painting per room.
You painted on seven In Common With light fixtures of varying scales, materials, and use cases. How did you approach them as both functional objects and blank canvases for expression?
DRR: I tried to think of each type of fixture as a blank canvas. Once I left the drawing board & started physically painting on them, the challenges of keeping the functional object rose to the surface. Unlike working on a flat canvas, this painting process required a lot of trial & error testing on the sample scraps and constantly moving the fixtures (& myself) around as I worked on them.
Can you walk us through the first moment of inspiration—what guided your palette, your gestures, or the narrative unfolding across each piece?
DRR: The narrative unfolded through the physical objects. The orbs for example required a more cyclical tale, flowers from a garden blowing in the wind, bunny rabbits chasing lady bugs alongside butterflies & birds playing. The up-down sconce presented an opportunity for mirroring, so I thought of Cherry Blossoms blossoming from the root up. The oyster like shape of the [Vera] sconces felt so angelic & natural, so swans in love on a double date came to mind first. And last but not least, my favorite, the sun & moon hugging eclipse surrounded by my notorious paper cut out girls holding hands around the perimeter. Ring around the rosy in mind, inspired by a mix of William Blake’s “Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing” (which later inspired Matisse’s “The Dance”) and summer camp craft class.
What does this collaboration with RAY and In Common With mean to you, and how has your connection to their community influenced your approach?
DRR: This is a very special collaboration I feel honored to be a part of. Not only because of the incredibly chic vision that both RAY, In Common With & Quarters bring to the table, but because of the cause we are raising money for, The Ali Forney Center.
As a visual artist, I spend so much time alone in my studio working completely independently. It was such a nice change of pace being able to be in dialogue with so many like minded creatives from both design teams, as well as discovering new mediums to work with along the way.
Looking back, what surprised you most about what this collaboration revealed—about your own practice, or about what light can express when treated as a medium for generosity?
DRR: The biggest perspective shift I gained while working in new territory was the impact that light plays on setting the whole tone for a room. The aura is really determined by tone, and it was a great new experience for my practice being able to play with light & how to illuminate certain colors & mediums. I definitely have some new ideas for future sculptural projects in the future with brass & bronze (shhhh).
How do you hope viewers—or collectors—feel when they encounter these pieces, knowing the cause they support?
DRR: I hope they are reminded to play. Especially with the cause directly supporting LGBTQ+ youth, I hope that everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation, can be reminded of the value that is held in play & how much their adolescence may attribute to shaping one's identities. Every child deserves a safe space for play & exploring oneself limitlessly.
Is there anything you’re seeking to answer, better understand, or explore through your art practice?
DRR: I think my whole practice is an attempt to understand the world at large. As my practice is fueled directly by my own identity & lived experiences, my bodies of work often mirror whatever themes or theories I am actively thinking about or challenging within my own day to day life. More than anything though it’s giving a voice to those people or moments that feel like they have fallen between the cracks and don’t fit into cookie cutter molds of tradition. If my artwork can leave you with anything, I hope that it makes you think. At least for a moment, it makes you feel something, reminisce or question, that would be my hopeful takeaway.