Born in 1947 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Alphonse Mattia is a studio furniture maker based in Fall River, Massachusetts. Mattia creates a variety of furniture ranging from elegant and functional to humorously theoretical, often incorporating familiar objects into his designs. Mattia studied at Philadelphia College of Art (BFA, 1969) and the Rhode Island School of Design (MFA, 1973). After completing his studies, Mattia held teaching positions around the country, including at Boston University (1976-85) and Swain School of Design in New Bedford, Massachusetts (1985-88). In 1990, Mattia joined the faculty at RISD, and was an associate professor of furniture design in the graduate program there for more than 15 years. Mattia continues to make work in Fall River out of Smokestack Studios, a collectively owned and operated studio space. Mattia has exhibited widely and is represented within the collections of museums including the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He has received fellowships from the Massachusetts Artists Foundation (1986) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1984). Alphonse Mattia was elected a Fellow of the American Craft Council in 2005.