Mats Fogelvik

A native of Sweden, Mats arrived to Maui 1991. In 1987, he attended an art and furniture making school in Stockholm, and worked as a teacher for the wood shop classes during 1988. Since then he has been working as a builder, finish carpenter, and the past 14 years a full time woodworker and furniture maker. He is the co-founder of the Maui Woodworker’s Guild. Over the years he has built a successful woodworking business on Maui, and at the same time worked on building a new shop on his property on the Big Island. In the spring of 2010 he moved with his wife Maira, and five cats to Ocean View, Big Island of Hawai’i. “I grew up in an Arts & Crafts family”, Mats says. We still have a living tradition of woodworking in Sweden, and I was surrounded by old and new furniture in my youth. I have a rich inspirational source to draw from in the Scandinavian heritage and traditions, and apply my background knowledge to specialize in native Koa wood and advanced veneer work for my furniture pieces. I am attracted to the simplicity, beauty and function in a form.” Mats has been featured in numerous juried shows, won many awards, and he has been published in several books, the latest one being “Contemporary Hawai’i Woodworkers” by Tiffany DeEtte Shafto and Lynda McDaniel. He is current vice president of the Hawaiʻi Wood Guild.