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"  One could say Stefania Bortolami has made an entire career out of mixing unlike things. The 45-year-old Italian-born art dealer, who got her big break in the &amp;#039;90s as Larry Gagosian&amp;#039;s second in command, has made a name for herself in the art world thanks, in part, to her knack for unexpected pairings. Walk into Bortolami&amp;#039;s eponymous five-year-old gallery on Manhattan&amp;#039;s West 20th Street and you might find, say, a stark black-and-white fabric installation by conceptual artist Daniel Buren alongside a canvas of rainbow-colored, Jackson Pollockian splotches by abstract painter Richard Aldrich. So, when asked what she enjoys about entertaining, Bortolami&amp;#039;s answer isn&amp;#039;t all that surprising: &amp;quot;The fun is in deciding who&amp;#039;s coming. &amp;#039;Oh, this person would get along with this person,&amp;#039; or &amp;#039;They don&amp;#039;t know each other, but maybe something can come of this, businesswise or romantically,&amp;#039;\u2009&amp;quot; she says, adding, &amp;quot;You know, curating a group of people.&amp;quot; Once a month, Bortolami and her girlfriend of three years, Rachel Smith, host between 15 and 20 guests at their airy Chelsea loft, a few blocks north of Bortolami&amp;#039;s gallery. Between Bortolami and Smith, who is the head of membership at the Soho House&amp;#039;s New York branch, the couple have plenty of hip friends from whom to choose. In September, the same week Bortolami&amp;#039;s gallery was admitted into the Art Dealers Association of America, the couple hosted an eclectic group that included artists Nate Lowman and Aaron Young, musician Michael Stipe, designer Tara Subkoff, and model Chris Collins. &amp;quot;Because of Rachel being in my life, we are trying to broaden our horizons [beyond the art world],&amp;quot; says Bortolami. Still, &amp;quot;it ends up being people who are not in the art [scene], but are somehow connected to it. If it&amp;#039;s people who are in fashion, they&amp;#039;re interested in art or are friends with artists.&amp;quot; Click here to see the photos from the dinner party! The couple certainly have good reason to entertain: In addition to having more square footage than most Manhattanites ever dream of, their apartment, where they live with Bortolami&amp;#039;s 11-year-old daughter, Maya, boasts a relaxed, rec-room-for-grown-ups vibe and includes a $45,000 Ping-Pong table by artist friend Tom Burr. Still, Bortolami and Smith know their limits as hosts. On this night, they hired the &amp;quot;educational, social, and theatrical culinary experience&amp;quot; company known as A Razor, A Shiny Knife to whip up a meal that featured an ice-cream dessert prepared, in front of marveling guests, using liquid nitrogen and dry ice. &amp;quot;If you go to Mario Batali&amp;#039;s house, you expect great food,&amp;quot; says Bortolami. &amp;quot;Nobody expects that from us.&amp;quot; When you come to Bortolami&amp;#039;s house, you expect something a little more spectacular. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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