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Craft Chat with Garry Knox Bennett
(November 12, 2:00 pm ET • 11:00 am PT)
November 12, 2020 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
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Guest host and furniture maker Russell Baldon interviews Garry Knox Bennett about his furniture design work and process. They’ll also talk about Bennett’s piece in our current exhibition From Where I Sit: Permanent Collection Seating, on view until February 20, 2021.
About Our Guest Garry Knox Bennett
Born October 8, 1934 in Alameda, California, Garry Knox Bennett is an American woodworker, furniture maker, metalworker and artist, known for his whimsical, inventive, and unconventional uses of materials and designs in his work. His long-established workshop and studio is in Oakland, California. Click here to learn more.
About Our Host Russell Baldon
Russell Baldon grew up in the central valley of California where he designed and built wooden toys for his family-owned company. Upon moving to San Francisco in 1984, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in furniture from the California College of Arts and Crafts (pre-name change.) He went on to receive a Master’s of Fine Arts degree in furniture from San Diego State University in 1997. Along the way he has studied and worked with some of the nation’s leading furniture makers including: Garry Knox Bennett, Gail Fredell, Wendy Maruyama, and Tom Loeser. Currently he maintains a cooperative studio in Alameda, California and is the chair of the Furniture Department at the California College of the Arts where he has taught for the last ten years. His own work expresses his belief that the elements of wonder are a basic component of what makes us human and stand at the core of our relationship to each and everything in our lives. He continues to examine how we receive and gather visual information from the many objects in the world around us. Click here to learn more.
More about the artist. Garry Knox Bennett is an internationally known furniture maker, currently represented by Gallery NAGA Boston; then, Winfield Gallery Carmel CA; Reform Modern Gallery Los Angeles; Hamamjian Modern San Francisco & Santa Cruz CA . Garry’s work is represented in many private collections as well as the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; the Mint Museum of Art+Design, NC; Museum of Art and Design, NY (formerly the American Craft Museum); Atlanta Museum of Art; Montreal Museum of Art; Oakland Museum, CA; Racine Art Museum, WI; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Smithsonian American Art Museum; Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
A major retrospective of Garry’s work was initiated at the Museum of Art and Design, NY (formerly the America Craft Museum) in January 2001, which included a venue at the Oakland Museum in California. The exhibition was documented with an extensive book on his work; “Made in Oakland: The Furniture of Garry Knox Bennett”. Garry has taught and lectured extensively in the US as well as in Canada, Australia and the UK. Garry received the 2004 Award of Distinction from The Furniture Society and is honored as Fellow of the American Craft Council. In 2011 Garry received the James Renwick Alliance Master of the Medium award in Washington DC.
