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Nov 05, 2024

Frank de Biasi Crafts a Chic Manhattan Apartment for an Art Adviser’s Adventurous Collection - Galerie

Astrid Hill stands with her dog, Modi, by the living room’s Charles X–style marble fireplace. Photo: Genevieve Garruppo; Styled by Lili Abir Regen How art adviser Astrid Hill ended up in her home on

Astrid Hill stands with her dog, Modi, by the living room’s Charles X–style marble fireplace. Photo: Genevieve Garruppo; Styled by Lili Abir Regen

How art adviser Astrid Hill ended up in her home on New York’s Upper East Side was, as she puts it, “a fun story.”

It is a tale that begins with a search on the real estate site StreetEasy during the holidays—“a time when no one else was looking,” she says—where she happened upon the listing for an apartment that had been occupied by its former owner for 96 years. “He hadn’t done a single renovation the entire time,” she adds. “I jumped on it.”

Enter Frank de Biasi, a longtime New York interior designer now based in Tangier, Morocco, who has projects all over the world. The two have known each other for years, and the fit was perfect. When de Biasi first saw the residence, he remembers thinking it was jaw-dropping. “You don’t really see that in New York, in the original condition. Nothing had been touched. There was no AC!”

In the living room of her family’s Upper East Side apartment, Astrid Hill, founder of Monticule Art Advisory, installed a Sarah Crowner canvas above the fireplace, while works by Lauren Quin (center) and Mark Grotjahn hang near a Nathaniel Rackowe sculpture. Designer Frank de Biasi furnished the space with a sofa and armchairs by Maison Carlhian that he upholstered in a fabric of his own design, grouping them with a Jacques Adnet daybed around a cocktail table by Gloria Cortina. The custom rug is by Doug and Gene Meyer for Holland & Sherry. Photo: Genevieve Garruppo; Styled by Lili Abir Regen

De Biasi headed a two-year renovation of the light-flooded, fifth-floor apartment, overseeing extensive architectural changes that included a new layout tailored for Hill, her husband, and infant son. The residence also serves as a base for her firm, Monticule Art Advisory, with areas that can be used for receiving clients and viewing art.

Those include the elegant dining room, which doubles as an office for Hill. At one end, de Biasi created storage for her business-related files, tucked behind sliding doors, and a desk hidden behind a wall. A large dining table, where Hill often sits to work, resides beneath a spectacular Nathalie Ziegler chandelier, while works by Donald Baechler, Lisa Kereszi, and Ruby Sky Stiler are arrayed throughout the room, the latter two set against light mint green walls. “I think it’s important to have rooms that have double functions,” says de Biasi. “Some days you have to work, and you’re not sure if you’re hosting a lunch or a dinner.”

In addition to all of the custom and meticulously sourced pieces, Hill wanted to incorporate antiques and art inherited from her family, things she grew up with, such as an abstract painting by her aunt Susan Hill that hangs in the primary bedroom.

A Nathalie Ziegler chandelier is mounted above the dining room’s midcentury Scandinavian table and chairs, a Donald Baechler work hangs next to the shelves, and a painting by Ruby Sky Stiler is displayed above a Johanna Grawunder console for Glas Italia. Photo: Genevieve Garruppo; Styled by Lili Abir Regen

Astrid Hill attributes her passion for art to her father, J. Tomilson Hill, a prominent art patron and collector. In 2019, the family created the Hill Art Foundation, which has a space in Chelsea for temporary exhibitions and displays of works from the Hill Collection, a centuries-spanning grouping that ranges from Old Masters to cutting-edge contemporary. She serves as the foundation’s vice president and curator of emerging artists. Naturally, the apartment was an art-driven project from the get-go. Hill is constantly bringing in new pieces and moving things around. But she never sells her works to clients. “This is my collection,” she says. “Nothing is for sale.” Instead, she uses her home as an example of how to live with art without living in a white box.

“I love that Astrid is fearless—in her art but also in her use of color”

That meant working closely with de Biasi to conjure an elevated and eye-catching mix of furnishings, fabrics, and finishes—occasionally in audacious hues. “I love that Astrid is fearless,” says de Biasi. “In her art but also in her use of color. Celadon and bubble-gum pink!” That playful combination refers to the primary bedroom, where it appears in the striped silk curtains, while a complementary pale blue turns up in the lounge chair upholstery and the glazed plasterwork that serves as a serene backdrop for a vivid Sarah Crowner abstraction over the bed.

In the library, a geometric abstraction by Sarah Crowner and a painting by Jo Messer are displayed atop panels made of a Le Manach fabric; Dutruc Rosset lighting sconces are mounted above the sofa, which was designed by de Biasi and is covered in a Manufacture Royale Bonvallet mohair velvet. Photo: Genevieve Garruppo; Styled by Lili Abir Regen

Another dynamic Crowner painting hangs in the library atop panels of sage-hued fabric, overlooking a custom sofa in sapphire velvet. Soft blues mix with blush and violet tones in the living room, where de Biasi anchored one end with a Jacques Adnet daybed cushioned in a splashy mulberry-colored tufted cashmere.

But here, too, it’s the art that really pops, from a large, kaleidoscopic, sunburst-like work on paper by Mark Grotjahn to a roiling, surreally fragmented landscape by Lauren Quin. “I see myself as a risk-taker in terms of art, and I wanted to show how you can live with these types of works in a classic-style apartment,” says Hill.

He created a breakfast nook with a custom banquette and table, joined by Maison Drucker chairs; the pendant is a Paris flea market find, and the artwork is by Erin O’Keefe. Photo: Genevieve Garruppo; Styled by Lili Abir Regen

De Biasi devised custom cabinetry for the kitchen and designed geometric tiles for the floor; the light fixture above the island is by Woka Lamps Vienna. Photo: Genevieve Garruppo; Styled by Lili Abir Regen

“I see myself as a risk-taker in terms of art, and I wanted to show how you can live with these types of works in a classic-style apartment”

Adds de Biasi, “This is a beautiful, classic apartment, and Astrid has hung things in such a contemporary way, and it is all so livable, fresh, and modern.”

Hill says she especially enjoys “the way works play off different works” and how “new conversations are created whenever I do a rehang.” In this Upper East Side apartment, the art talk never gets dull. 

A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2024 Collectors Issue under the headline “Living Color.” Subscribe to the magazine.

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