The American designer, architect, and furniture maker Wendell Castle was born in Kansas in 1932. He studied at the University of Kansas, completing a BA in Industrial Design in 1958 and a Masters in Sculpture in 1961. He then moved to Rochester, New York in 1962 to teach at the School for American Crafts, establishing a permanent studio in the area. Credited as the founding father of the American crafts movement, Castle redefined sculpture and design by seamlessly merging the two into one discipline. For Wendell, the fact that his pieces were functional was incidental as he prioritised form over function, believing that “there is always more than one way to look at a given thing”. He constantly sought to escape familiarity and to challenge convention. He saw art as a form of paradox, a tension of opposites, embracing both uncertainty and unfamiliarity. His furniture was his art, every bit as expressive and powerful as sculpture. Castle’s organic and imaginative approach to sculpture incorporated his own invented ‘lamination’ technique which involved carving into stacked layers of wood. His approach to design was truly innovative, not afraid to embrace new technologies such as 3D modelling and robotics. Never compromising on high-level craftsmanship however, Castle’s designs always employed the human hand in at least the final stage of production. His furniture designs for residential clients, public spaces, and a number of churches represent a unique exploration of the qualities and possibilities of wood and fiberglass. His work can be found in the permanent collections of more than forty museums and cultural institutions, including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the White House in Washington, D.C. He has been the recipient of many honours and awards, including four National Endowment for the Arts grants, the Modernism Lifetime Achievement Award from the Brooklyn Museum in 2007, and the Visionary Award at the Smithsonian Craft Festival in 2014.