Matthias Pliessnig is an acclaimed furniture designer based in Brooklyn, New York.[1] whose work uses steam bent wood. His style is "kinetically contemporary" and he uses "computer-aided curves with laborious craftsmanship" to handcraft chairs and benches.[2]
Pliessnig is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design and the University of Wisconsin (Madison). His interest in woodworking developed after he decided to build a boat and was inspired to apply those techniques, particularly steam bending of wood strips around a mold, to furniture making.[2] The New York Times reported that his studio "looks more akin to a boat-builder’s garage than an icy SoHo loft, which makes sense when you consider the lunular shapes of Pliessnig’s chairs."[1]
His first solo exhibition was hosted by Philadelphia's Wexler Gallery in 2008.[3] Plessing's 2003 Shell is made of laminated mahogany wood strips around a concrete form.[4] His work Bends is a bowed bench made from a grid of wood that "gives way to support the sitter".[5]
In 2010, he was named a fellow by United States Artists.[6]