Alphonse Mattia (1947 – April 10, 2023) was an American furniture designer, woodworker, sculptor and educator. In 2005, Alphonse Mattia was elected a Fellow of the

American Craft Council The American Craft Council (ACC) is a national non-profit organization that champions craft based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1943 by Aileen Osborn Webb, the council hosts national craft shows and conferences, publishes a quarterly maga ...

(ACC).

Biography

Alphonse Mattia was born in 1947 in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

. He was raised in an

Italian American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan area ...

, Catholic family. He attended

Philadelphia College of Art Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

(now known as the University of the Arts) and graduated with a BFA degree. Mattia has a MFA degree in 1973 in industrial design from

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

, where he also studied furniture under

Tage Frid Tage Frid (30 May 1915 – 4 May 2004) was a Danish-born woodworker, educator and author who influenced the development of the studio furniture movement in the United States. His design work was often in the Danish-modern style, best known for h ...

. Mattia taught at

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a public research university in Richmond, Virginia. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virginia in 1854. In 1968, the Virginia ...

(from 1973 to 1976);

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original c ...

(from 1976 to 1985); the

Swain School of Design The Swain School of Design (also known as Swain Free School) was an American non-profit educational institution, founded in 1881 in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The school and archive is now part of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, within ...

(from 1985 to 1988); and at

(starting in 1990). Mattia was instrumental in the establishment of the in 1975, which was later purchased by the Swain School of Design in 1985. The Program in Artisanry had emphasized art over craft. Mattia's notable students included

Emi Ozawa Emi Ozawa (born 1962) is a Japanese-born American visual artist, sculptor, and furniture designer. She is known for her woodworking that is also interactive sculpture, which she started creating in the early 1980s. Originally from Tokyo, Ozawa liv ...

. Mattia's work can be found in museum collections including at the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds ...

Museum of Arts and Design The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), based in Manhattan, New York City, collects, displays, and interprets objects that document contemporary and historic innovation in craft, art, and design. In its exhibitions and educational programs, the mus ...

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin F ...

Rhode Island School of Design Museum The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD Museum) is an art museum integrated with the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, Rhode Island, US. The museum was co-founded with the school in 1877, and still shares multiple build ...

, and at the

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. The permanent collection of the F ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mattia, Alphonse 1947 births 2023 deaths Artists from Philadelphia University of the Arts (Philadelphia) alumni Rhode Island School of Design alumni Virginia Commonwealth University faculty Boston University faculty Rhode Island School of Design faculty American furniture designers American people of Italian descent