His armchairs seem to have sprung up like shimmering mushrooms in the middle of a living room. Liam Lee, a young New York-based designer, shapes hand-dyed merino wool until it becomes coral or lichen. How has this designer, who has gone from digital renderings to museum collections in just a few years, reinvented the association between art and furniture? The answer can be found at the end of this article.
Nature as the first workshop
Born in New York in 1993 and educated in literature at the University of Chicago, Liam Lee left the set design world to open his own studio in 2020. There, he observes cells, seeds, and the seabed, reproducing these organic forms in watercolor sketchbooks before translating them into cozy volumes. In his eyes, a seat must breathe like a plant and invite those who sit on it to travel.
Sculpted wool
Each piece begins with strands of merino wool and mohair dipped in colored acid baths. The carded fiber is then needle-felted and applied to a cedar frame, a process repeated for weeks until the resulting reliefs evoke corals, cacti, or floating spores. The artist loves the flexibility of this material, which can become soft or dense depending on its density and retains the warmth of skin.
From gallery to museum
Spotted at the FOG Design+Art fair in San Francisco, Lee has since joined the Patrick Parrish Gallery in New York, which dedicated the exhibition "Catch and Release" to him in 2023. His seats undulated like seaweed, inviting visitors to reconsider the ordinary chair. That same year, he was a finalist for the Loewe Craft Prize, before entering the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Denver Art Museum.
Quick recognition
In less than five years, the international press has praised his biomorphic imagination. Wallpaper* included him in its USA 300 list, while Dwell named him one of 24 new talents to watch. His work is also featured in the Cooper Hewitt's Making Home triennial in New York, where his chairs are displayed alongside domestic objects exploring the theme of future living.
Poetic and sustainable
Beyond the visual spectacle, Liam Lee champions responsible craftsmanship: the wool comes from American farms and the dyeing process uses very little water. The furniture he creates takes on the status of sculpture without sacrificing its function: the artist explains that he wants to bring to life pieces that appear to have grown without human intervention, blurring the line between manufactured object and living organism.
So how does Liam Lee transform the way we experience art at home? The answer lies in an armchair whose coral silhouette welcomes the body while evoking the slow growth of a reef. Its seats invite an intimate dialogue with nature, encouraging us to caress it rather than gaze at it from behind glass. In this way, the artist confirms that design can be both a refuge and an adventure, promising a daily life where beauty continues to grow, again and again.
