NEW YORK, NY.- Phillips announced that Meaghan Roddy, Senior International Specialist, Americas, will relocate to Los Angeles to lead the Design department’s West Coast initiatives. The move reflects the extraordinary growth of the Phillips Design Department and the increasing importance of California to the company’s expansion.
Ms. Roddy, previously based in New York, will continue to focus on important collections and top client relationships. In addition, she will partner with Phillips’ existing L.A. team, led by Blake Koh, and the company’s regional representatives and specialists in the Americas to increase Phillips’ presence in the region and create cross-marketing opportunities with its 20th Century & Contemporary Art, Photographs, Editions, Watches and Jewelry teams.
“I have worked with Meaghan for many years and have personally experienced her passion for design and her extraordinary commitment to building our world-class design department,” said Alexander Payne, Worldwide Head of Design. “California is a key target for our development efforts and I believe Meaghan is perfectly positioned to increase our activities and visibility in the region. She will spend more time with collectors on the West Coast and throughout the Americas as we build on our strategy of engaging with clients across the globe so we can continue to grow our market share.”
In the fall, Ms. Roddy will play a lead role in the London October sale called Shape & Space, New Ceramic Presence, collaborating with Phillips’ 20th Century & Contemporary Art team to bring an exceptional collection of ceramic works to the market during Frieze week.
Ms. Roddy joined Phillips in 2007 after working for seven years with American ceramics, studio furniture, and international 20th and 21st century decorative arts and design at Rago Auctions in Lambertville, New Jersey, and Weschler’s Auctions in Washington, DC. She is currently co-curating an exhibition, The Good Making of Good Things: Craft Horizons Magazine 1941-1979, at the Ceramic Research Center of the Arizona State University Art Museum through September 2018. It will open at the Minnesota Museum of American Art in February 2019.
Phillips’ Design department has set the industry benchmark for innovative sales of avant-garde design. The team has repeatedly established new auction records, most notably selling the most expensive piece of design by a living designer—the Lockheed Lounge by Marc Newson, which sold for $3.7 million. Phillips Design team set an auction record last December for American 20th century ceramics with Peter Voulkos’ Rondena, which sold for $915,000. Phillips also sold Isamu Noguchi’s iconic Goodyear Table from 1939 for a record $4.45 million, and has significantly boosted its share of Art Deco and Modernist pieces with strong results for designers such as Eileen Gray and Marcel Coard.
