Park Avenue

Located in a 1920s building on the city’s Upper East Side, the 2,600-square-foot flat is “so beautiful and grand and has such great soul,” Brent observes, adding that he had been recommended for the job by the owners’ nephew, who happens to be one of Brent’s clients. Of the uncle and aunt who have now become close Brent friends: “He is practical and logistical but has this funny art eye that gravitates to bold, emotional pieces. She’s as chic as it gets, seriously smart, and likes things that are refined, soft, and luxurious.”

The couple are members of a worldly clan that shuttles between Mexico and Nicaragua and which has collected art in abundance and, indeed, produced it. “When I first walked in, there were these bronze sculptures everywhere that looked like Giacomettis—but they were the work of the husband’s mother, who is now in her 90s and is creative, strong, and passionate,” the decorator says. He was also stunned by an accumulation of Mesoamerican pottery that had been collected over more than 30 years. “That’s where we started, pulling out patinas and finishes that reflected the pottery and the bronzes,” Brent says. “They had never really been showcased before.”

Neutral, yes, but not without moments of excitement, such as the boldly angular custom bronze mantel in the living room, its material chosen expressly because it related to the matriarch’s figural sculptures. The circular entrance hall is a space that Brent calls “a beautiful chaos,” where a Latin American artist conjured a mural made up of gold geometric shapes that echo the silhouettes of the room’s Pierre Chapo table and the Gio Ponti–style light fixture. It’s a fun-house repetition that energizes the classical architecture while the overlapping curves engender a strange sense of hypnotic calm. Complementary geometries can be found throughout the rooms, in furnishings large and small, from the disclike vintage Vilhelm Lauritzen sconces in the dining room to the golden table lamps in the gue