Featured Board Member: Sophie Glenn

We caught up with Sophie to hear more about her back­ground and current exhibition.

Tell us a little about your­self — where you’re based and how you got started making furniture.

I was born and raised in New York City, and I’m currently based in Reading, PA. While study­ing sculp­ture at SUNY Purchase College, I took a metal furni­ture class with Vivian Beer, which is what led me to pursue both furni­ture making and metal­work­ing. I further studied furni­ture design and wood­work­ing at San Diego State Univer­sity.

What inspired your latest body of work? And who are some of your inspi­ra­tions for furniture making?

I have been recre­at­ing classic furni­ture designs completely out of steel for about 10 years. For the body of work that I will be show­cas­ing in the Metal Misfits show, I really wanted to take these works to the next level, by focus­ing on surface deco­ra­tions and making corre­la­tions between those consid­ered ​‘high-brow’ and ​‘low-brow’. Having grown up in the East Village of NYC, I was surrounded by sticker-bombing, graf­fiti, punk culture, and Y2K fashion trends, and as I studied furni­ture more, I began to notice simi­lar­i­ties between the furni­ture forms and tradi­tional deco­ra­tive elements, and the visual and mate­r­ial culture of my upbring­ing. For example, a tilt-top table presented itself in a similar way to a sticker-bombed street sign. Ulti­mately, I wanted to recon­tex­tu­al­ize these ​‘low-brow’ deco­ra­tions in the language of fine furni­ture, and make works that can speak to a wider audi­ence.

How did your latest show come about?

I partic­i­pated in an exhi­bi­tion called ​“Lust for Rust” at Atlantic Gallery in 2025, which was juried by Ellen Hackl Fagan. She chose my works as ​‘best in show’ and because of that I was awarded a solo exhi­bi­tion at the gallery.

What does being a board member of The Furni­ture Society mean to you?

Being a Board Member of the Furni­ture Society has been a very mean­ing­ful way for me to give back to an orga­ni­za­tion and commu­nity that has been so welcom­ing and support­ive to me, espe­cially in the early stages of my career. It is impor­tant to me that I help continue to make the commu­nity more support­ive and welcom­ing to all of our members.

Sophie has work in a forth­com­ing solo exhi­bi­tion at Atlantic Gallery, with an opening recep­tion on October 22, 6 to 8 pm.

Check out Sophie’s profile page and website.