"El Rey" Lounge Chair by Mats Theselius, Källemo AB, Sweden, 1999

Although prolific Swedish architect and designer Mats Theselius moves freely between creating furniture, lighting, objects, installations, exhibitions, set designs, and more, he is perhaps best known for his innovative armchairs. Described by critics as “surprising and ingenious,” Theselius is responsible for some of the most noteworthy furniture designs of the 1980s and 1990s.

Born in 1956 in Stockholm, Theselius attended the city’s prestigious Konstfack (University of Arts, Crafts and Design), where he studied Interior Architecture. After graduating in 1984, he worked at various architecture firms in Stockholm.

In 1985, Theselius debuted a cylindrical club chair upholstered with elk leather. The chair’s unique, molded curved frame, which served as a backrest and armrests, became a signature design characteristic of many of Theselius’s seating pieces. He partnered with entrepreneur Sven Lundh, and Lundh’s company, Källemo, produced a limited-edition variation of this seat, the Älgskinns­fåtöljen chair, in 1991. The Iron/Suede lounge chair followed in 1994.

Another iconic Theselius piece is the National Geographic bookcase. Made of beech with glass doors and brass detailing, the bookcase features shelves sized to accommodate 25 years' worth of National Geographic magazines. For its debut in 1988, Theselius painted the bookcase the same recognizable yellow color that typically frames the cover of the publication.

While working on furniture design and other projects, Theselius served as a professor at the HDK – Academy of Design and Crafts at the University of Gothenburg from 1995 to 1996. He has also collaborated with several well-known Swedish and European manufacturers in addition to Källemo, including String, Marrakech Design, Minus-tio and David Design.

Throughout his career, Theselius’s works have garnered critical acclaim and won numerous awards. Among them are the Red Dot Design Award, the Torsten and Wanja Söderberg Prize, the Wallpaper Design Award and the King of Sweden’s Prince Eugen Medal (2018). Theselius also received the Bruno Mathsson Award in 1997, which is named for the revered Swedish master cabinetmaker. Theselius is said to have created his coveted Bruno armchair immediately afterward.

Today, Theselius’s pieces can be found in the permanent collections of the National Museum in Stockholm, the State Russian Museum in Moscow and the Danish Museum of Art and Design in Copenhagen.

Find vintage Mats Theselius seating, case pieces, storage cabinets and other furniture on 1stDibs.

“An object shall stand the wear of the eye!” proclaimed Swedish entrepreneur Sven Lundh (1925–2015), who took over operations at revered furniture company Källemo in 1971. For decades, the innovative brand has accomplished just that with a range of original and unconventional pieces that draw on — and regularly push the boundaries of — Scandinavian modern and postmodern design.

Based in Vänamo in southern Sweden, Källemo was originally established in 1947 before it was taken over by Lundh in 1971. Lundh’s vision for Källemo was to evolve the company and to create sustainable furniture that would be both functional and wholly sculptural. The interest in creating forward-looking seating, case pieces, tables and more that are as much furniture as they are art deepened for Lundh during the 1980s, when Swedish designers began to explore the ideas that underpin postmodernism in their work. 

Lundh sought to secure long-term partnerships with modernist and postmodernist Swedish and European artists and designers such as Jonas Bohlin, the creator of the scandalous Concrete chair, which caught Lundh’s attention at Konstfack’s student exhibition in 1982. Bohlin’s minimalist armchair, featuring an angular steel frame and concrete seat and headrest, was meant to be presented as a sculpture, but it fit Lundh’s idea of “artistic furniture.” Källemo produced the Concrete chair as a limited-edition series, and it became one of the company’s best known pieces. 

Over the years, Källemo has collaborated with Gustav Persson — designer of Källemo’s Bank bench — Mats Theselius, John Vedel-Rieper, Jens Harald Quistgaard, Gunnar Myrstrand and numerous other artists and designers to create its unique collection of furniture. In 1996, Lundh’s son Erik and daughter Karin took the helm at Källemo, which remains a family-owned firm. Today Källemo pieces are held in permanent museum collections throughout Sweden and Europe. 

Find Källemo seating, tables, case pieces and storage cabinets on 1stDibs.