NEW YORK—Just in time for New York’s Asia Week, the notable Oriental furniture and art gallery MD Flacks Ltd. is inaugurating its sizable new space, at 32 East 57th Street, with an exhibition of rare Chinese stools that runs March 10 to 27.

The gallery has not moved far. Owners Marcus Flacks and his wife, Debby, who spend most of the year in London, opened MD Flacks in 1995 just two doors down, at 38 East 57th Street. Marcus says Arne Glimcher, whose PaceWildenstein Gallery occupies several floors at number 32, told him about the new space: 2,300 square feet, including an attractive terrace, spread over the building’s top two stories .

The Flackses hired Edward Wendt, of the New York firm Now Design Studio, to create an understated environment, complete with cream-colored polished-concrete floors, to set off the gallery’s two major shows a year, during the spring and fall Asia Weeks. Marcus says they chose stools for their first exhibition as probably the most historically important type of Chinese furniture and for their sculptural appeal. "It’s always been one of my favorite forms," he says. He rounded up 16 examples priced from $20,000 to $350,000, including a very rare stool in huanghuali wood from the late 16th or early 17th century. Some were borrowed from collectors, but he also raided his own cache. "I really wanted to open with a great show, and I saw some sacrificial lambs in my living room."

"Close to Home" originally appeared in the March 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's March 2009 Table of Contents.