Garry Knox Bennett
Garry Knox Bennett (1934-2022) was widely acknowledged as a master in the world of furniture making. Most furnituremakers work from designs. Garry, however, did not draw or plan: instead he worked from intuition and inspiration. Like a painter constructing a painting, Garry allowed each shape to inform the next.
He had dozens of traveling retrospectives, the most recent at the Richmond Art Center in Richmond, California entitled, Vertical at 75. His 2006 traveling retrospective, Call Me Chairmaker, which began at the Bellevue Arts Museum in Bellevue Washington, toured through 2009.
A major retrospective of Garry's work was initiated at the Museum of Art and Design, NY 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.
Bennett’s work is represented in many private collections as well as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Mint Museum, NC, the Museum of Art and Design, NY, 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.