Six Decades Later, the Design World Shines a Light on Stephen White

"Soft-spoken and grounded, Stephen White has little interest in accolades. "The work was always appreciated by those who knew it," he says with a shrug. "I never felt unrecognized." Now, at last, the design world's attention has arrived, just in time for White's retirement. The 86-year-old recently handed off his practice to his daughter, Simone White, a transition that coincided with what Simone calls "a dramatic increase in interest.""

""I was struck immediately by the quiet poetry of Stephen's work," Pamela Shamshiri says of discovering White through LA's Twentieth Gallery. "His pieces have a natural presence, almost like an animal." Echoing that sentiment, Heidi Caillier says she was attracted to a certain "organic element that can be hard to achieve. They make a room feel special on their own.""

"Each numbered fixture bears White's identifying mark-a rising sun stamp he carved in the late 1960s using a flathead screwdriver and soapstone. The insignia seems especially apt for a designer who conceived his first collection in polar gloom. In 1966, as a young Air Force engineering officer, White deployed to Alaska's Cape Lisburne station and spent two winters 160 miles above the Arctic Circle. The sun would set in mid-November and reemerge in late January. "It's not totally black, just a deep gray," White says."

Stephen White, an 86-year-old lighting sculptor, has produced more than 2,000 works. He is soft-spoken and grounded with little interest in accolades, saying the work was always appreciated by those who knew it. He recently handed off his practice to his daughter, Simone White, a transition that coincided with a dramatic increase in interest. Several prominent designers have installed his fixtures, praising their quiet poetry, organic presence, and the softness and sensitivity they add to spaces. Each numbered fixture bears White's rising sun stamp, carved in the late 1960s. White conceived his first collection during two winters deployed above the Arctic Circle in Alaska, an environment of long darkness that influenced his aesthetic.

Read at Architectural Digest