NORMAN PETERSEN GALLERY
When I thought of art for my home or office, it didn't occur to me to think about furniture. That is, not until I saw furniture made by Norman Petersen. According to Northern California Home & Garden, "Petersen makes furniture that looks European by way of California, appearing to be finished in a studio, not a woodshop." Each piece is exquisite and powerful at the same time, but does not dominate a space. Petersen's furniture is eminently collectible, but the major plus for me is that this form of art is functional - you can sit on his chairs. Petersen and I chose to share the African series with you. EXHIBITS AND HONORS Recent Exhibits Public Collections Private Collections Education OTHER PAGES Ethnic and Folk Arts Resident Artists Book Store Private Collections Collector's Corner				AVAILABLE WORK Visual Index of His Work African Chairs Triton Chairs Boomerrondack Rocker Blade
			What others have said about Norman Petersen From the San Francisco Examiner, January 27, 1993 by Kristine M. Carber One night on his way home from his studio, San Francisco furniture designer Norman Petersen passed a broken chair discarded by a neighboring importer. "I couldn't identify it, but I knew it was Third World," Petersen says. "It was in pieces, but I liked it because it was interesting and small." The chair was made by the Senufo Tribe in West Africa. Petersen took it to his shop and came up with his own variation. He has been making African-style chairs ever since. Thematically, each chair is the same. All are made from scrapwood and have soft hand-stitched rubber and leather seat bolsters. The uniqueness of each comes from various decorative elements and unusual tones. "Remember when you were a kid and smeared colors on a white sheet of paper," asks Petersen, "then covered it with black crayons and scratched through? That's what it looks like. Only I use oils." A Palo Alto, California native, Petersen studied at Stanford University, before spending a year at the Academy of Art in Munich. He returned to the Bay Area and enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute. A year later, looking for full time work, he landed a job at NASA Ames Research designing exhibits for the space program. "My boss gave me carte blanche," Petersen says. "We did incredible displays, like silk screens on mirrors. There was lots of color, very graphic - things Ames had never done before. It was real splashy. This got me into three-dimensional design." Petersen's exhibits are still part of the Exploratorium. He stayed at NASA "until we got to the moon," leaving to set up a special art program for kids, and to open his own studio designing kitchen and sailboat interiors. A short time later he started making furniture. Petersen's portfolio isn't limited to the tribal motif. "My ball and cone chair (from the TRITON series) is probably my hallmark," he says. "It's a pretty little chair with hand-painted leather seats - real flashy. It looks like a small Egyptian throne. Art-decoish, but very contemporary." His most recent design - the Boomerrondack rocker - was inspired by designer Richard Neutra's 1940s boomerang chair and the New York Adirondack. Petersen's work has garnered a spot in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, the Museum of Fine Art in Boston and the Oakland Museum." Selected Recent Exhibits "Visions Reflected," The Sybaras Gallery, Royal Oak, MI "The Rocker," Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, New York, NY "The Out Door Chair," Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York, NY Agnes Bourne Gallery, San Francisco, CA "New American Furniture: The Second Generation With A California Complement, Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA Gallery Naga, Boston, MA "The Art Of Furniture," Elaine Potter Gallery, San Francisco, CA "California Furnishings," Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art, Monterey, CA California Craft Museum, San Francisco, CA Public Collections TRITON CHAIR, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, permanent collection Two chairs from the AFRICAN CHAIR series, Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA LITTLE GOTHIC THRONE, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA Private Collections Fletcher Benton, San Francisco, CA Sydney and Frances Lewis, Richmond, VA Michael and Nina Zagaris, Modesto, CA Harold and Sandy Price, Laguna Beach, CA Ted Cohen, Oakland, CA Paul and Gloria Choi, Oakland, CA Dr. James Petterson, Memphis, TN Sandra Betzina Webster, San Francisco, CA Michael Pmerance, Cambridge, MA Deborah Brillstein, Malibu, CA Judy and Mel Croner, San Rafael, CA and many others Education Stanford University (painting, lithography, and design), Stanford, CA Academy of Art, Munich, Germany San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
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