Anton Gerner

A former dairy in Hawthorn East, its original tiled floor and walls still intact, houses a workshop turning out furniture that reads as sculpture as much as cabinetry. Anton Gerner trained in traditional joinery before deciding that heirloom-quality furniture needed to look forward rather than back, and his pieces now fold rare veneers and solid timbers into forms with no obvious front, back or visible joins, the sort of detail that rewards a second look. Two of his works, including a chest of drawers carved from Huon pine, have entered the National Gallery of Victoria's permanent collection, an unusual distinction for a maker who still designs and builds every commission with a small team on site rather than farming work out to a factory. The showroom sits directly against the workshop, off busy Auburn Road, so the line between retail and production stays visible rather than hidden behind a shopfront. Gerner's clientele runs from private collectors furnishing a single room to institutions after a singular showpiece, but the scale has stayed deliberately small: one workshop, one dairy building, one maker overseeing every cut.