When Furniture Is Art: How This Furniture Designer Goes Experimental

Stefan Bishop is one of our 2020 Emerging Designers. Discover the entire inaugural class here and why they’re making the West a more beautiful place.

Name: Stefan Bishop

Type of work: Experimental artist and designer 

Established: 2012

Based out of: Los Angeles

Is it sculpture? Is it furniture? For artist and designer Stefan Bishop, it’s both. “What I do is diverse. I’m not a traditional furniture maker, so rarely do I use traditional woodworking techniques or finishes.” 

Everything Bishop creates is experimental. Every piece has a custom finish on it. Sometimes it’s as simple as washing the wood with ink. Sometimes it’s a layer of acrylic, a layer of a water based finish, an epoxy glaze, everything you can imagine off the finishing shelf he’s used, sometimes in multiples. The resulting pieces are dramatic objects of art as much as furniture, and are always experimental. 

Here are three crazy-cool examples of Bishop’s striking work.

Puddle Side Table

Courtesy of Stefan Bishop

Monolith 24

Courtesy of Stefan Bishop

Okra Sculpture

Courtesy of Stefan Bishop