New York Magazine
1 of 14
Jeffrey Miller is a freelance editor and set designer who has done more brilliant magazine spreads than anyone can count. He lives in spartan luxury in an ordered duplex apartment that houses a number of collections he’s gathered over the years. The walls of the living room have been painted a dark charcoal from Farrow & Ball, giving the impression of infinite space.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Magazines and books figure into the décor, with neat piles stacked in the living room.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
The Donald Judd table and chairs are the only pieces of furniture in the living room. It’s a fine, minimalist setting for small dinners—or, as seen here, for laying out everything for the workweek ahead. Before deciding on the Judd table, the room was bare. “I just had picnics when my friends came over for dinner,” Jeffrey says. “We’d lay down a tablecloth on the floor with table settings on it.”
Photo: Wendy Goodman
The neat piles on the table are constantly changing depending on what Jeffrey is reading and working on.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Jeffrey designed the bookshelves and had them painted the same charcoal black as the walls. The Nymphenburg bisque rabbit is from Moss.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Another shelf-worthy prize: a Hella Jongerius ceramic vase.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Jeffrey is a frequent trawler of flea markets, carefully selecting objects to add to his collection.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
A lone Donald Judd chair sits in the hallway in front of his bedroom. “I almost bought the table in this color too,” Jeffrey says, “but I thought I would get tired of so much color and it would be better to have a more neutral palette downstairs.”
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Raised beds or bed frames always feel too confined to Jeffrey, so his bed pallet has always been on the floor.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Even the doorstops in his apartment are perfect. A precisely even circle bisects this rock.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
These rocks, which I just had to shoot upside down, were gathered over a twenty-year period earlier in his life. “I don’t think you can take them off the beach [in Long Island] anymore,” he says. “People were bringing in dump trucks and sweeping them up for landscaping.”
Photo: Wendy Goodman
His kitchen drawers are filled with collections of Ted Muehling spoons as well as a mismatched set of James Robinson hand-hammered silver. “I would buy one piece over the years when I could afford it.”
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Jeffrey and I ended up going through his incredible book collection on my visit. Here is a first edition of Brodovitch’s Ballet book and a copy of New York: The New Art Scene.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Even empty glasses serve a purpose when they are waiting for guests. These wishbones cast in silver and gold are by Jeffrey’s friend, artist-designer Carl Martinez. They are originally from meals that Jeffrey and Carl shared together.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
For me, the high point of the show is this, which manages simultaneously to be a painting, a force field, and an electromagnetic visual discharge. This is an artist sloughing off old consciousness, making something he doesn’t even know is art, giving up nearly all known languages of painting, and maybe violating the laws of nature by making something that seemingly puts off more energy than went into making it.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
For me, the high point of the show is this, which manages simultaneously to be a painting, a force field, and an electromagnetic visual discharge. This is an artist sloughing off old consciousness, making something he doesn’t even know is art, giving up nearly all known languages of painting, and maybe violating the laws of nature by making something that seemingly puts off more energy than went into making it.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
For me, the high point of the show is this, which manages simultaneously to be a painting, a force field, and an electromagnetic visual discharge. This is an artist sloughing off old consciousness, making something he doesn’t even know is art, giving up nearly all known languages of painting, and maybe violating the laws of nature by making something that seemingly puts off more energy than went into making it.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
For me, the high point of the show is this, which manages simultaneously to be a painting, a force field, and an electromagnetic visual discharge. This is an artist sloughing off old consciousness, making something he doesn’t even know is art, giving up nearly all known languages of painting, and maybe violating the laws of nature by making something that seemingly puts off more energy than went into making it.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
For me, the high point of the show is this, which manages simultaneously to be a painting, a force field, and an electromagnetic visual discharge. This is an artist sloughing off old consciousness, making something he doesn’t even know is art, giving up nearly all known languages of painting, and maybe violating the laws of nature by making something that seemingly puts off more energy than went into making it.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
For me, the high point of the show is this, which manages simultaneously to be a painting, a force field, and an electromagnetic visual discharge. This is an artist sloughing off old consciousness, making something he doesn’t even know is art, giving up nearly all known languages of painting, and maybe violating the laws of nature by making something that seemingly puts off more energy than went into making it.
