Wendell Castle: Living exhibition at Friedman Benda 2026
The Wendell Castle: Living exhibition at Friedman Benda gallery in New York runs through October 17, 2026, recreating a lived-in family home.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- Friedman Benda gallery in New York hosts Wendell Castle: Living through October 17, 2026.
- Curated by the artist's daughter, Alison Castle, featuring historic furniture and personal artifacts.
- Highlights include the 1972 stacked-walnut bed Environment and a child's high chair carved for Alison.
- The exhibition traces decades of innovation in stack lamination woodworking techniques.
Friedman Benda gallery in New York has transformed its exhibition space into a lived-in family home for Wendell Castle: Living, on view from September 17 through October 17, 2026. The exhibition brings together historic studio furniture and personal belongings to evoke the unique environment shaped by the legendary American designer and his family.
Curated by the artist's daughter, Alison Castle, the exhibition takes its starting point from a June 1973 feature in House Beautiful magazine. That spread captured Wendell Castle and his wife, ceramic artist Nancy Jurs, living alongside their freshly crafted works in Scottsville, New York. Large-scale photographs installed across the gallery walls bridge the past and present, allowing viewers to experience the furniture as functional elements of daily life rather than static museum artifacts.
The installation offers a clear chronological view of Castle's technical evolution, starting with early works like the 1962 Chaise Rocker and progressing to his pioneering stack lamination technique adopted in 1963. By fusing thick layers of timber and carving them back into continuous organic forms, Castle created monumental pieces such as the 1972 walnut bed and workstation Environment, alongside later sculptures like Opposites Attract from 2017 and the mahogany bench Arcadia from 2010.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
The stack lamination technique developed by Castle in the early 1960s revolutionized American studio craft by enabling the creation of seamless, monumental wooden forms that resembled organic architecture. This method allowed designers to bypass traditional joinery limitations, blending sculpture and functional furniture into unified, continuous landscapes of wood.
Some of the most intimate pieces in the exhibition are also the smallest, including a wooden high chair carved with Alison's name across the back and a 1973 coat rack still bearing the artist's hat and wood shavings from his final studio days. Ceramic works by Nancy Jurs and contributions from fellow artist friends are interspersed throughout the rooms, recreating the vibrant creative community that defined the household.
Small details, such as a Kermit the Frog toy resting atop the monumental Environment bed alongside playing family videos, perfectly capture the curatorial vision. The exhibition successfully blurs the boundaries between high art and domestic utility, turning a formal gallery into a warm family room.
Source: designboom
Found something wrong in this article? Report an issue with this article
Comments
Leave a Comment