Having moved to New York City after school, Castle quickly saw the potential market for handmade furniture, then available only through local craft shows, and left sculpture to concentrate on that. Within just a few years, his work was appearing in design collections and museum exhibitions. In 1962 he was offered a position at Rochester Institute of Technology as an instructor in the furniture-design program at the School of American Crafts, and he left New York City to settle upstate, where he has lived since. His studio, in Scottsville, New York, just outside Rochester, is an 1890 former grain mill that Castle purchased in 1969 and converted into a workshop and living quarters for himself and his family. Over time, the studio took over the structure, becoming a rambling network of adjoining spaces totaling 15,000 square feet. Castle’s workroom is a bright high-ceilinged space where he draws, makes models and shapes prototypes.

The designer keeps fresh by constantly changing course. “If I knew what I’d be doing in 10 years, I wouldn’t be happy. I’d be bored,” he says. “I can’t do the same thing different ways—I need to do different things.” Every decade or so, he’s tried something new, not always successfully. He recalls a series of tabletop sculptures, then a group of mirrors: “They didn’t have a theme to carry on, didn’t lead me to anything more.” In the late ’70s, he designed a group of trompe l’oeil furniture pieces and, in the ’90s, designs with Art Deco–like inlays. “I wanted my furniture to be collected like art and appreciated like art,” he says.

Castle’s new work seems destined to achieve that goal. Highlights from the Friedman show include objects made of pierced steel or aluminum whose surfaces appear to be laser cut but are actually composed of hundreds of small amoebalike forms welded together and molded into organic shapes with small irregular openings, then buffed and polished smooth. There is an oversized three-legged fiberglass floor lamp with a gold-leaf shade, a silvery ovoid chaise with a built-in shelf and armrests, a low-slung purple plastic armchair, a brilliant blue blob-shaped  sofa and a curvy rocker shown in four different metals. All are in small editions (mostly of eight), a concept for furniture that Castle pioneered several decades back.

His elegant watercolor enderings of furniture, many of which are hung around the studio and workrooms, have been exhibited but never available for sale. He considers compiling them into a book one day. He also thinks about designing jewelry and has done pieces for his wife, Nancy Jurs, a prominent ceramist, but can’t seem to find the time. Nor has he been able to pursue his hobby of restoring vintage cars: “I’m too into what I’m doing in the studio,” he says. Will he retire? “I couldn’t think of anything worse.”

"The Shape of Things to Come: Wendell Castle" originally appeared in the April 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's April 2008 Table of Contents.