Exhibit honors Philly’s regional talent

The Wayne Art Center in Wayne, Pa., presented “InGrained: Furniture, Sculpture, and Woodturning by Pennsylvania Artists” from Dec. 2, 2023 through Jan. 20, 2024, featuring work by artists from the greater Philadelphia region. It was a companion show to the Center’s “CraftForms” juried exhibition of fine craft and curated by furniture maker Mark Sfirri.

“I’ve been asked, and I am curious myself, why there is so much talent in the medium of wood in the Philadel­phia area,” Sfirri wrote in his curator’s statement. “Certainly, there is a regional tradi­tion of furni­ture making that dates back centuries.

“The Philadel­phia Museum of Art and the Philadel­phia Craft Show have long supported the craft commu­nity. There are wood­work­ing programs at the Univer­sity of the Arts and Bucks County Commu­nity College (where I taught for 36 years). The Museum for Art in Wood in Philadel­phia has regular wood exhi­bi­tions and a stun­ning perma­nent collec­tion. The James A. Mich­ener Art Museum in Doylestown is making a clear deci­sion in favor of craft in their collect­ing. And since 1994, the Wayne Art Center has staged annual juried craft exhi­bi­tions. All of these factors must have contributed to the rich­ness of wood art in this region.”

The exhibited featured work by David Beker, Miriam Carpen­ter, George Dubin­sky, Wharton Esher­ick, David Fisher, Nick Flaherty, Sophie Glenn, Larissa Huff, Michael Kehs, Norine Kevolic, Jack Lari­more, Alphonse Mattia, James Maurelle, James McNabb, Don R. Miller, Mira Nakashima, George Nakashima, Keun Ho Peter Park, Colin Pezzano, Janine Wang, Derek Weidman, Chelsea Witt, Dan Zobel, and Sfirri.

“This year we lost an impor­tant furni­ture maker, Alphonse Mattia, from Philadel­phia,” Sfirri noted in his statement. “His ground­break­ing work began in the late 1960s, and he taught at numer­ous insti­tu­tions through­out the U.S., includ­ing Boston University’s Program in Arti­sanry and Rhode Island School of Design. He was inspired by Wharton Esher­ick, and, in turn, Mattia has inspired new gener­a­tions of makers through­out his own career.”

Learn more art wayneart.org.

This article was originally published in the April 2024 issue.