Cement Sand Drum Side Table

Sculptor and furniture designer Fernando Mastrangelo is a master of many mediums, including stone, cement, silica, sand, salt and glass. His side tables, stools and wall-mounted sculptures are all made by hand at his New York studio. Each piece represents an interplay between art and function.

Mastrangelo paved himself a course toward sculpting and design early on in life. He graduated from Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts with a BFA in 2002 and from Virginia Commonwealth University with an MFA in sculpture in 2004. He worked for a short time for artist and photographer Matthew Barney before launching the Fernando Mastrangelo Studio (F/MS) in 2006.

Mastrangelo found quick success and recognition in his budding career. In 2008, his corn-based Avarice sculpture was acquired by the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Inspired by the Aztec calendar stone, the piece was later included in the museum’s “Connecting Cultures” exhibition.

Mastrangelo took his first foray into furniture in 2014, when he launched his debut line at the Sight Unseen Offsite design fair. He exhibited at Sight Unseen Offsite again in 2016, this time with a range of cement furniture known as the Fade series.

His star on the rise, Mastrangelo moved into a new, 10,000-square-foot studio and gallery space in Brooklyn in 2017. In describing the area to Introspective, he said: "My goal is to make my gallery a destination where people can come to see the passion of young creatives." 

To celebrate the new chapter of his career, Mastrangelo held an inaugural exhibition at his gallery, In Good Company, to which many of his favorite designers and artists contributed. That same year, he founded the In Good Company nonprofit to provide emerging artists with a platform for their work. He later spent much of his time living and working in the Catskill Mountains in Upstate New York.

Mastrangelo’s work has been exhibited worldwide, including at the Salone del Mobile in Milan, artgenève in Geneva and Mendes Wood Gallery in Sāo Paulo. He has also been commissioned to create bespoke pieces for the likes of Dior, Stella McCartney and Audemars Piguet.

On 1stDibs, find Fernando Mastrangelo tables, seating, wall decorations and more.

Stools are versatile and a necessary addition to any living room, kitchen area or elsewhere in your home. A sofa or reliable lounge chair might nab all the credit, comfort-wise, but don’t discount the roles that good antique, new and vintage stools can play.

“Stools are jewels and statements in a space, and they can also be investment pieces,” says New York City designer Amy Lau, who adds that these seats provide an excellent choice for setting an interior’s general tone. 

Stools, which are among the oldest forms of wooden furnishings, may also serve as decorative pieces, even if we’re talking about a stool that is far less sculptural than the gracefully curving molded plywood shells that make up Sōri Yanagi’s provocative Butterfly stool. 

Fawn Galli, a New York interior designer, uses her stools in the same way you would use a throw pillow. “I normally buy several styles and move them around the home where needed,” she says.

Stools are smaller pieces of seating as compared to armchairs or dining chairs and can add depth as well as functionality to a space that you’ve set aside for entertaining. For a splash of color, consider the Stool 60, a pioneering work of bentwood by Finnish architect and furniture maker Alvar Aalto. It’s manufactured by Artek and comes in a variety of colored seats and finishes.

Barstools that date back to the 1970s are now more ubiquitous in kitchens. Vintage barstools have seen renewed interest, be they a meld of chrome and leather or transparent plastic, such as the Lucite and stainless-steel counter stool variety from Indiana-born furniture designer Charles Hollis Jones, who is renowned for his acrylic works. A cluster of barstools — perhaps a set of four brushed-aluminum counter stools by Emeco or Tubby Tube stools by Faye Toogood — can encourage merriment in the kitchen. If you’ve got the room for family and friends to congregate and enjoy cocktails where the cooking is done, consider matching your stools with a tall table.

Whether you need counter stools, drafting stools or another kind, explore an extensive range of antique, new and vintage stools on 1stDibs.