Since 2000, Todd Merrill Studio has been renowned for its glamorous and eclectic mix of twentieth-century furniture and lighting. Originally located in a 500-square-foot space at the corner of Stanton and Ludlow on New York City’s Lower East Side, the pioneering gallery was one of the of the first to promote modernist and postmodernist American studio artisans including Karl Springer, James Mont, Tommi Parzinger, Paul Laszlo, Paul Evans, Philip and Kelvin LaVerne, Samuel Marx, Arthur Elrod, Harvey Probber, T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, and Vladimir Kagan. The gallery also features a beautiful selection of European mid-century modern designer furniture and lighting by makers including Dunbar, Monteverdi-Young, Widdecomb, Grosfeld House, Venini, Vistosi, Barovier, and Murano.
In 2008, the gallery introduced Custom Originals, a line of furniture designed by Merrill himself. Merrill’s signature creations reflect his vast experience with twentieth-century design and knowledge of contemporary tastes.
In 2009, shortly after Rizzoli published Modern Americana: Studio Furniture from High Craft to High Glam (2008), Merrill’s seminal book on the post-war period of American design, he launched Studio Contemporary, an exhibition-based program representing an international group of established and emerging contemporary artists. Today, the work of these artists is in high demand among collectors, designers, and curators around the world.
With the gallery’s support, these new artists’ works have entered the collections of major private and public patrons and prestigious museums including the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in New York; the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; the Museum of Art and Design in New York; the High Museum in Atlanta; the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; and the Brooklyn Museum in New York.