STEVEN HAULENBEEK is an American artist and designer who lives and works in Chicago, Illinois. He attended Hope College in Holland, Michigan, and received a degree in drawing and sculpture. Living and working in the Holland/Grand Rapids area, a hotbed of American design and furniture manufacturing, became a very powerful influence. He fell in love with the Eames’, Nelson, Saarinen, Bertoia, etc., while simultaneously trying to discover his path as a sculptor. His large-scale steel sculpture work quickly transformed into functional objects, and he executed his first one-man show at the Holland Area Arts Council with 20 sculptural lighting pieces in 2002.

Haulenbeek began a graduate program in Designed Objects at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004 and graduated first in his class in 2006. After graduating, he worked as an industrial designer for Atlanta-based Formation Design Group, as a furniture designer at Chicago-based Holly Hunt Enterprises, and has taught at his alma mater SAIC. In 2010, he began his independent practice, Steven Haulenbeek Design, with an emphasis on unique material/process-based objects for the home. In 2011, he created the first “Ice-Cast Bronze” objects utilizing the frigid Chicago winter environment to create objects in cast bronze. In 2016, Haulenbeek launched his first objects in Resin-Bonded Sand, another unique experimental fabrication process. His work runs the gamut in scale, material, and process, but all exhibit a similar understanding of materials and an aesthetic simplicity through a hands-on, experimental prototyping style.

Haulenbeek has been the recipient of several honorable mentions and awards. In 2015, he was named by the New York Times as one of the most exciting emerging American designers. In 2016, he was named the American Design Honoree at Wanted Design Fair during New York Design Week. Haulenbeek is represented by the Carpenters Workshop Gallery.

(Photo Credit: Tom Gavin; Source: Carpenters Workshop Gallery)