THE TEAM

NEW YORK

THE FOUNDERS

Adam Brown Philadelphia born, BA from Temple University in Northeast Asian studies and the Japanese language. Brown apprenticed as a young carpenter in Dallas during the tail end of the Texas oil boom. After a brief period in the late 1970s developing property in Manhattan's East Village, in the mid 1980's he went on to become an investor and general contractor in central Philadelphia, buying and selling residential real estate. As entrepreneur and adventurer, in the mid 1990's Brown made a series of trips to the newly formed Czech Republic with his new partner and spouse Andrea Zemel, culminating in a series of strategic alliances in the art and antiques field. In 1996 he met Leon Tsoukernik, the premier dealer of Biedermeier furniture in Prague. Leon introduced Adam to the nuances of the style as only the connoisseur could, and later partnered with Brown to establish a retail presence in Philadelphia as I. Brewster & Brown. In 1999, Tsoukernik's Prague/Washington based antiques gallery Metternich Ltd. merged with I. Brewster & Brown Philadelphia to launch ILIAD Antik New York on 58th street, combining in a single enterprise one of the largest collections of first period Austro-Hungarian Biedermeier, and one of the finest restoration ateliers in the world. In 2002, Zemel and Brown acquired Tsoukernik's interest in the company and maintain their affiliation to this day.

An ardent antiquarian and student of classical and Near Eastern culture, Brown has combined his love of the ancient world and his passion for modernism and contemporary arts to achieve an ambitious vision at ILIAD's monumental new 57th street gallery. Serving as a platform for the pursuit of art, culture, excellence, and adventure, Iliad is a tour de force in decorative and fine arts spanning more than 5000 years of the human experience.

Andrea Zemel Washington DC born, Andrea Zemel received her BFA from the University of Pennsylvania in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She later completed her MFA at Penns Graduate School of Fine Arts, studying painting under Neil Welliver and printmaking with Hitoshi Nakazato. Zemel spent three years on the faculty at Penn, having launched a collaborative and public art program that continues to this day.

In the mid 1990's, Zemel left academia and moved to New York with her partner and spouse Adam Brown to explore fine art and antiques in the post-communist Czech Republic. There she was captivated not only with the Biedermeier style, but by her first encounters with the modernist art traditions of Eastern Europe. Informed and inspired by these new lexicons, Brown and Zemel would share their zeal as collectors and purveyors of Czech and Hungarian modern art. In 1999 they founded ILIAD Antik in the heart of Manhattan's midtown design district. Zemel would later draw on her experience as sculptor and draftsman in 2001 by launching ILIAD Design, and has created an extensive portfolio of high-end commissions of period inspired furnishings in the Biedermeier and Art Deco style at ILIAD's comprehensive workshop in Prague. Besides being a founding partner of ILIAD and head designer for ILIAD Design, she is actively involved in the curation of ILIAD's Contemporary Art program, which includes a selection of allegorical mosaic works from her own studio.

Barnaby Haughey Barney has spent over five years training in our Prague atelier to learn the art of fine period furniture restoration and construction. Third generation in the line of a family antiques business in the UK, Barney has worked in the industry for more than fifteen years.

Jiri Popelka born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Studied at the Prague Academy of Building and Technical arts. While attending the academy as a young man, Jiri apprenticed in a restoration atelier where woodworking became an obsession. He later decided to continue his master studies at the Technical College in Prague in the special field of artistic woodworking. While at the Technical College Jiri started his first restoration workshop where his full concentration was on furniture from the Biedermeier period. Employing precision and traditional techniques and technologies, his workshop became recognized for its high standards of craftsmanship and it's aesthetic vision for period furniture restoration. Jiri was later approached by the Czech/American company Metternich Ltd., which was then exporting Biedermeier furniture for their Washington DC showroom. When Metternich joined Iliad in 2000, that union would forge the basis for the long-term cooperation with Iliad. As artist and master craftsman, Jiri Popelka became the chief of his own atelier. Under his guidance, twelve journeyman, apprentices, and polishers restore Iliad's Biedermeier furniture to an ideal seldom reached in commercial enterprise. Inspired in spirit by the great woodcraft guilds and ateliers like the Wiener Werkstätte or the Danhauser workshop, Iliad's creed is that Biedermeier furniture reach it's full aesthetic potential, to make evident the truth and aspiration of the makers original vision, plainly revealing the inherent Modernist yearning at the core of the style.

Today, Jiri combines years experience with Central European antique furniture with his informed and nuanced artistry. With his poet's sense for veneers, he interprets, and then crafts rendered designs for the new branch of Iliad, Iliad Design. Jiri works closely with Iliad's cofounder and sculptor/designer Andrea Zemel to achieve unique and exceptional period inspired creations, both functional and beautiful.