Photos by Adam Golfer.
The most recent location of Tommy Hild’s 25 year-old frame shop Frame Art straddles the border of Williamsburg and Bushwick on Flushing Avenue at Thames Street. Hild, a native of Timisoara, Romania who has lived in New York City since the 1970s, made framing his life’s work, after an artist friend lamented about the difficulty of finding a skilled craftsman to frame his work. A quarter-century later, Hild reflects on the changes in the industry. Framing has become largely an e-commerce driven business. And many of the old art handlers and framers in the city have fallen by the wayside over the years.
Newbies and seasoned artists alike flock to Hild’s business and Hild attributes his longevity in the business to long-standing relationships and personalized service, as well as to his habit of being proactive, taking a fastidious interest in the artwork itself, and constantly reminding his to customers not to wait until the last minute to get their work ready for show or shipping, and to his astute ability to match the frame to what the art is. “A humble copper-painted ash wood frame comes alive when surrounding a modern work of art of a deep cerulean blue,” explains Hild.
Hild has framed costly photographs and lithographs, including a Miro print. He’s also framed up three-dimensional items such as antique violins and a set of Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves. And it gets even more esoteric than that.
“Once I had a customer whose building was being demolished,” recounts Hild. “He wanted to frame the plaster sculptures on the door frame.”
Whatever the customers’ needs may be, whether it’s “a shadowbox or an eight-ply mat,” Hild stresses that his goal is to provide “the best service at the best cost.”
147 Thames Street (near Flushing)
(718) 381-0300
frameartnyc.com
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