Queer Places:
Pratt Institute, 200 Willoughby Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11205
Mount Calvary Cemetery, 800 Pine Ridge Heritage Blvd, Cheektowaga, NY 14225
Mark Kaminski (August 24, 1953 – January 27, 1993) was an architectural designer.
A native of Buffalo, Kaminski trained at Pratt Institute and graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He was an assistant at Mark Hampton Inc., the interior decorating firm on Madison Avenue, before striking out on his own in 1986.
His work has been featured in Vogue and House and Garden magazines, as well as in the current "Young Talent" issue of Elle Decor magazine, which describes him as "a model of discipline and discretion."
Kaminski's clientele included figures in the world of contemporary art. He added a wing to the house Peter Hoppner designed in the Hamptons for Klaus Kertess, the art critic and adjunct curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art. "Mark is extraordinary with details," Kertess told Elle Decor. "He understands their importance in the final effect" -- down to the moldings and doorknobs.
The artist and director Robert Wilson called on Kaminski to refurbish a SoHo loft into spare and luminous offices. Kaminski helped the painter Chuck Close turn a SoHo storefront into a studio that could accommodate his large-scale photorealist portraits.
Brice Marden, also a painter, and his wife, Helen, used him to coordinate the expansion of the kitchen and dining area in their house in Greenwich Village.
He died on Wednesday at his parents' home in Buffalo. He was 39 and lived in Manhattan. He died after a brief illness, said his father, Richard Kaminski.
My published books:
