Philadelphia’s famous Wexler Gallery is showing an exhibition of the important works on paper of the legendary artist, Pablo Picasso, alongside our modern-day furniture artist known as Wendell Castle and his masterful seats. The show is running now through the end of February 2012, the furniture through images deserves special recognition.

Midnight. Designed by Wendell Castle.

Round and Smooth Playful Edges Create the Artistic Furnishings Made by Wendell Castle.

Far from being a novice furniture maker, Castle’s experience and solid work has been around for approximately fifty years. His pieces provoke us to consider the idea that “art is a form of redemption, a transfiguration of the commonplace” instead of it taking on the appearance and function of being a simple decoration or solely a purposeful object. Notice the whimsical character that comes alive through his Midnight chair made of stained mahogany with an oil finish and his Snow Princess seat made of bleached mahogany.

Moonbow. Designed by Wendell Castle.

Crafted for their rounded and curved perfection, Castle’s pieces are seen in both the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City among many others around the globe. As the gallery itself states of the recent pieces he created for the show at Philadelphia’s Wexler Gallery, “Castle’s recent pieces deconstruct and reinterpret ideas about function, form, line, color and mass, allowing the work to stand in the worlds of furniture, sculpture, and design simultaneously.”

Snow Princess. Designed by Wendell Castle.

Famous as both an artist and furniture designer for blurring boundaries with grace and for using difficult, solid materials, we commend the playful nature of Wendell Castle’s woodworking and hope to see it in the near future at some of our favorite museums.

About the Designer: Wendell Castle has been a sculptor, designer and educator since he began creating innovative designs in wood, plastic and bronze. Throughout the U.S., Europe and the Far East, Wendell Castle has placed his work in numerous museums and corporate collections that include the Museum of Modern Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Smithsonian in Washington, DC, The Chicago Art Institute, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, etc.