Rest, 2009, blueberry wood, salvage pine

My work is more about surviving, the innate sensuousness of material, and intimate connections, than it is about furnishings and décor. Making work out of implausible, almost worthless salvage wood, and stretching the limits of structure and function is at the center of my work – it is how I try to answer questions about the value and importance of objects I live with. My pieces move, sway and tremble, and are not very accommodating – they demand respect for their unusual structures and tender connections. They are serviceable, if one understands their frailty and topography, and have the capacity to affect the simple rituals of daily life. The structures I create are meant to be collapsible and portable. They have the potential to be temporary. Steve Whittlesey Notes on the Work

Resume Highlights

 

Selected Exhibitions

2010 October – Teaching Furniture Design Workshop at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, China
2010 July-Aug, group exhibition, Blue Heron Gallery, Deer Isle, ME, www.blueherondeerisle.com
2010 Aug 20 –Oct – Four woodworkers, exhibition, We, Us, You, and I, Narrows Center for the Arts, Fall River - www.ncfta.org/gallery
2010 June – Six Degrees of Separation, Group Exhibition, MIT gallery, in connection with Furniture Society Conference 2010, www.furnituresociety.org/furn/conference)
2010 March – For North Bennet Street, Group Exhibition, Gallery Naga
2009 Nov-Dec – Group Exhibitiion, Art Gone Green, The Art Gallery at Bunker Hill Community College
2009 Oct-Nov – Group Exhibition, Wood-O-Rama, Yeiser Art Center, Paducah KY, 2nd place award
2009 Oct – Jan 2010 – Group Exhibition, Generously Odd: Craft Now, Lexington Art League, Lexington KY
2009 July-Aug, group exhibition, Blue Heron Gallery, Deer Isle, ME
2008 Jan 25 - Mar 9, 29th Annual Contemporary Craft Exhibition, Michael Monroe, Juror, Mesa Arts Center, Mesa, Arizona, Juror's Choice Award
2007 Aug – Sept, group exhibition, Fiber National, Juried, Lancaster Museum of Art, PA
2007 Sept - Jan, featured artist, group exhibition, New Bedford Art Museum
2007 Feb - Mar, 'Quiet Time,' group exhibition, Katherine Nash Gallery, University of Minn, curator Diane Katsiaficas
2006 Sept - Oct, “Trashformations,” group exhibition, Lancaster Museum of Art, Lancaster, PA
2006 May - July, “Old Friends, New Work,” Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston
2006 Jan-May “Trashformations,” group exhibition, Copia Center, Napa, CA
2005 November, “Under Cover” group exhibition, NAGA gallery, Boston
2005 Jan-May, group exhibition, “Trashformations,” Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA
2004 Oct - Jan, group exhibition, “Outrageous Home,” Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton, NJ
2003-04 Nov - Feb, survey exhibition, "The Maker’s Hand -Studio Furniture 1940 - 1990," Boston Museum of Fine Arts
2003 Sept - Oct, group exhibition, Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge
2002 April-May, solo exhibition, John Elder Gallery, NYC
1998 Jan - Feb, solo exhibition, John Elder Gallery, NYC
1997 July-Aug, solo exhibition, installation, "Close to Home" at the Fuller Museum, Brockton, MA
1997 April, solo exhibition, Snyderman Gallery, Philadelphia
1994 December - January, solo exhibition, Snyderman Gallery
1992 November, two-person exhibition, Outside-In Gallery, Los Angeles
1991 May, group exhibition, Objects Gallery, Chicago
1990 December, solo exhibition, Snyderman Gallery
1990 July-August, "Eight Artists, Eight Visions," group exhibition, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln MA
1989 December, "American Studio Furniture" group exhibition, Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston
1989 October, solo exhibition, Heller Gallery, NYC
1988 April, "Elegant Wit," four-person exhibition, Gallery Naga, Boston
1988 Gallery at Workbench, NYC, two-person exhibition

Grants, Awards
2008 - Juror's Choice Award, Annual Contemporary Craft Exhibition, Mesa Arts Center
1999 June, Mass Cultural Council Individual Artist Award
1993 Sep - Dec., Artists’ Residency Program (National Endowment of the Arts), La Napoule, France
1992 National Endowment of the Arts Individual Artist Grant
1967-68 Fulbright Grant to Spain

Education
BA, MFA Columbia University

Selected Media

• Found Object Art 2, Tina Skinner, Schiffer Publishing, 2009, nine images/text
• Gallery Naga Exhibit, Mark Favermann, review of North Bennet St. exhibition, BerkshireFineArts.com, 3/13/10
• New England Home, feature article, by Robert Kiener, Mar/Apr 08
• American Craft Magazine, From Salvage to Transcendence, Dec/Jan 08
• New Bedford Standard Times, feature article, "Tales from the Wood" by Catherine Carter, 12/21/07
• Boston Museum of Fine Arts Publications, 2003, “The Maker’s Hand, American Studio Furniture, 1940-1990,” written by Ned Cooke
  and Jonathan Fairbanks, published in conjunction with the Boston Museum of Fine Arts furniture exhibition.
• Fine Woodworking Magazine, April 2003, Image of work & review of Worcester Craft Center Exhibition, "The Chair," by Asa
  Christiana
• Woodwork Magazine, October 2002, Review and images of the John Elder Gallery solo exhibition
• "Scratching the Surface, Art & Content in Contemporary Wood," a book by Michael Hosaluk, published 2002
• New Bedford Standard Times, 4/10/2002, "Funky & Elegant," by David Boyce, a review of the 2002 John Elder Gallery solo exhibition
• Boston Globe, 5/10/01, Gallery Naga Exhibit, Review by C. Temin
• Greater Boston Arts, a PBS television program devoted to three contemporary artists, first aired: April 19, 2000
• American Craft Magazine, June-July ‘98, article by Michael Rush about solo exhibition at John Elder Gallery, NYC
• Sculpture Magazine, Jan-Feb ‘98 review of installation, "Close to Home" at the Fuller Museum, by Ann Wilson Lloyd
• The Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 1, 1995, Review of solo exhibition at Snyderman Gallery by E. J. Sozanski
• Art New England, Dec.‘94 - Jan.‘95, Profile of Stephen Whittlesey by Lois Tarlow,
• Woodwork Magazine, cover story, Spring ‘91 issue
• American Craft Magazine, cover story, Dec ‘86/Jan ‘87 issue
• New York Magazine, Image, story 11/12/84

Teaching

• 1992- retired, June, 2010. Professor, Artisanry Department, (Wood & Furniture Design, Graduate and Undergraduate Program), University of Massachusetts Dartmouth