MANCHESTER, NH -Woodworkers and craftmen looking for chair design inspiration should consider visiting a new exhibit opening next month in the Northeast: The New Hampshire Furniture Masters is set to explore the appeal of a commonplace object found in virtually every American home: the chair.

The newest gallery installation, “Just Chairs: A Survey of Side Chairs,” is an exhibition of more than 20 chairs, made mostly from wood, created by current and former members of the NH Furniture Masters as well as by a number of invited chair makers. The exhibition will be on view at the Furniture Masters’ Gallery in Concord, NH, from April 12 through June 11, 2013.

“The chair is obviously not a new type of furniture. It probably came into being when an unknown cave person decided to dovetail a stick on to a rock to make a backrest,” jests gallery director Ted Blachly. “Yet a chair is one of the more challenging pieces of furniture that a maker can build. The knowing craftsman understands the stresses that will be imposed upon it during its life and strives to address these structural concerns in an elegant way.”