John Makepeace’s set called “Zebra Cabinets” is featured in the book and gallery show.
Furniture maker David Savage recently published “Furniture With Soul: Master Woodworkers and Their Craft,” a book surveying the industry in the United States and United Kingdom, the Boston Globe reports. Savage takes a two-pronged approach, identifying both masters of the genre and up-and-comers.
Gallery NAGA in Boston, Mass., has taken the opportunity to exhibit Savage’s picks. “Furniture With Soul” is up now and spotlights major figures in the field, such as Englishman John Makepeace, Californian John Cederquist, and Cambridge-based Judy Kensley McKie. Next spring, the gallery will bring the younger artists in.
On display from Makepeace is a set called “Zebra Cabinets.” Shaped like zebras, these cabinets are painted in vibrant black and red stripes, and include a face and a tail on each end. Inside, the cubbies and drawers are lacquered with a shocking fire-engine red.
Cederquist crafted his urban-style upright cabinet “Big Kanji” after a 1940s-era kimono covered with wartime propaganda. He, like Makepeace, uses marquetry, insetting images cut from a variety of woods into the surface.