ILevel founder, David Kassel was recently interviewed by New York Social Diary! Here’s a quick preview of the interview, but check out the rest on the New York Social Diary website.
David Kassel started ILevel, an art-installation and placement service, in 1990 and he and his staff have, over the years, become the go-to people for picture hanging and placement. They work with galleries, corporate spaces, museums as well as placing art in private homes. (‘Sometimes I’m a bit like a marriage guidance counselor,’ says David, ‘You know, she has her ideas and he has his.’) More recently, he has opened ILevel Design store in Greenwich, Conn.
He himself lives in long, beautifully renovated basement apartment in the East Village together with his wife, Michele and two young children, Sam and Lucy. Most of the artwork is homegrown, David’s work and Lucy’s work being the most prominent elements of the collection. Incidentally, the muffins on the table in one of the photographs were homemade and the nicest muffins we have ever eaten. (Apparently the recipe comes from that Sneaky Chef book, the one with recipes where you put brussel sprouts into chocolate cakes and no one knows.)
NYSD: We’re just really interested in picture-hanging as a skill. If you were to describe it to someone, what’s difficult about it?
DK: I don’t know that there’s anything difficult about it. It takes a visual sensitivity or awareness. You could say, what’s difficult about arranging your furniture or your bookcase … it’s not rocket-science … but it takes a sensitivity. There some things to consider like light, if it’s going to get sun-damaged, or steam near a bathroom …
NYSD: I think you’re underestimating it. The only reason I’m saying that is that I’ve used you and your company, and there is absolutely no way that clients have a clue …
DK: Right, I was going to get to the visual side. There is a sensitivity of proportion and space, which is largely two-dimensional, but then there’s curtains and furniture in the room.