Garry Knox Bennett (October 8, 1934 – January 28, 2022) was an American woodworker,

furniture Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...

maker, metalworker and

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

from Alameda, California, who was known for his whimsical, inventive and unconventional uses of materials and designs in his work. His workshop and studio was in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

In popular culture

In a

season 7 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

episode of the NBC show ''

Parks and Recreation ''Parks and Recreation'' (also known as ''Parks and Rec'') is an American political satire mockumentary sitcom television series created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur. The series aired on NBC from April 9, 2009, to February 24, 2015, for 125 ...

''—the third, "William Henry Harrison"—Bennett is listed by main character Ron Swanson as one of only two celebrities that he recognizes. (The other being Magnus, a local bull elk.)

Bibliography

* ''Made in Oakland: The Furniture of Garry Knox Bennett'', American Craft Museum, New York, 2001; (catalogue for retrospective exhibition, curated by Ursula Ilse-Neuman)

References

External links

Made in Oakland:
The Furniture of Garry Knox Bennett (Oakland Museum of California)
Garry Knox Bennett Furniture
- Bennett's website
An interview with Garry Knox Bennett, conducted 2002 February 1-2, by Glenn Adamson, for the Archives of American Art
1934 births 2022 deaths American furniture designers American sculptors American woodworkers California College of the Arts alumni American furniture makers Fellows of the American Craft Council People from Alameda, California {{Woodworking-stub