“I can visualize a song in my head, and know what it’s supposed to sound like—it’s the same thing with furniture,” says Jessie Nelson, a Brooklyn-based designer and maker who is also an accomplished pianist. The Wyoming native—who hails from a town of 12,000 with just two stoplights—favors materials that visibly age with use: concrete, wood, and brass. His latest works are currently included in “Night Shift,” a group show at Dernier Cri, the new Upper East Side gallery by Michael McGraw.
At age 20, Nelson moved New York City “on a wing and a prayer.” Music was his first passion; he’s a certified audio engineer and toured with a Warner Brothers-signed band for eight years before begrudgingly applying for, and landing, a job as a bellhop with the yet-to-open Ace Hotel in NoMad. “Unbeknownst to me, that was going to be a pretty life-altering situation,” he recalls. He worked closely with owners Alex Caldwell and Kelly Sawdon and found himself in the regular orbit of the hotel’s designers Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch of Roman & Williams.
