Neal Small was born in 1937 in NYC. WIth a distaste for traditional furniture, which he likened to "having a dead whale in the living room", Small opened Neal Small Designs on West 24th Street in Chelsea. Here the designer manufactured and sold his innovative products to leading retailers of the 1960's which included B. Altman & Co., W & J Sloan, Bloomingdales, and Scarabaeus. Using innovative techniques Small brought plastic and acrylic based furniture out of the display world and into the home. Throughout his career Small received awards for his innovation including the Excellence in Design Award given by Industrial Design Magazine in conjunction with The Smithsonian Institution, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. His work has been exhibited and is featured in the permanent collections of many prominent institutions, including The Musuem of Modern Art, The Smithsonian Instutution, the Walker Art Center, the Albright-Knox Museum, the Brooklyn Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Small lives and works as an artist in rural Maine.
