Since founding their eponymous gallery in 2005, Demisch and her Paris-based partner, Stéphane Danant, have been introducing American audiences to French titans like Paulin, Joseph-André Motte, Michel Boyer, and Maria Pergay, whom Demisch originally tracked down in Morocco via the yellow pages. Sourcing rare works, the duo has built a cult following curating scholarly exhibitions—always refined, never showy. They have brought that same nuanced approach to private residences for the likes of arts patron Dasha Zhukova Niarchos.
“It all plays as one,” Demisch explains of their multiarmed practice. “When envisioning shows, we picture environments, acting as the clients.” In the case of the Brooklyn project, she continues, “we placed a real client at the center of the curation.”
With scroll moldings, ornate banisters, and 13-foot ceilings, Upjohn’s neo-Gothic architecture served as a canvas. Demisch Danant, collaborating with Cheung Showman Architects, oversaw a historically sensitive renovation, looking at 17th-century Flemish country homes as references. In went a spartan Bulthaup kitchen, ash plank flooring, and sumptuous stones (terra-cotta-colored Rosso Alicante marble in the powder room, pale gray travertine in the primary bath). “We wanted to allow the architecture to do the heavy lifting, adding minimalist furnishings that would not distract the eye,” says the client.
