Saidye Bronfman Award Winner: Peter Pierobon
Peter Pierobon in the studio, 2025.
Peter Pierobon is an internationally celebrated artist, furniture maker and sculptor who is the recipient of the 2025 Saidye Bronfman award, Canada’s highest distinction for excellence in craft. Here, curator Anthony Matthews writes about Pierobon’s life and career, highlighting his contributions to Canadian craft at home and abroad.
Peter Pierobon, Rhythm Rhyme, 2014. Ebonized wood, 61 x 168 x 152 cm. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST.
Since the Saidye Bronfman award was first bestowed in 1977, only two furniture makers have been recognized for their contributions to Canadian craft: Michael Fortune in 1993 and Peter Fleming in 2000. But this year, the recipient for Canada’s foremost award for craft, administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, is furniture artist Peter Pierobon.
Peter Pierobon, Mountain Table, 2020. Stone and American cherry wood, 76 x 183 x 112 cm. Photo: Goran Basaric. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST.
With a practice spanning over 40 years, Peter Pierobon describes his work as sculpture. His elegant pieces share qualities of material innovation, unparalleled precision, execution and conceptual content in three-dimensional form. As an artisan working in wood in the discipline of studio furniture, Pierobon’s work rests solidly in the intersection between art, craft and design.
Peter Pierobon, Mariners, 1997. Ebonized wood, 76 x 61 x 51 cm tallest. Photo: Joe Chielli. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST.
This article is an excerpt and and is available in full in the Spring/Summer 2025 issue of Studio Magazine.
