ARTISANS
Led by principal designer Nersi Nasseri, SENTIENT is a Brooklyn based furniture design studio with a focus on craftsmanship, custom work and original design. With a respect to sustainable sourcing of wood species, SENTIENT is regionally focused, and too supports the community it sits within. Its ideology leans towards what beauty brings and what design does, and the inspiration of the hand created.
Brian Christopher | bicyclette
Pure lines , planes and sustainably sourced American hardwoods are what bicyclette brings to their furniture craftsship. A purity of beauty, and a love for making comes through noticeably in each piece crafted. Nothing is added that isn’t needed, which allows the evidence of the hand and the beauty of natural wood to shine. Brian’s work is a celebration of craftsship, beauty, and the intuitive need to create and make by hand. Brian Christopher maintains a working studio in Brunswick, Maine.
Taylor Clements | Kershaw Studio
The Olio collection of Kershaw Studio has a complex simplicity of opposites: angles and planes. A playing of shadows that subtly illuminates the simplicity of its details, material and hand honed surfaces. This medley of form culminates in an honest simplicity of making, shape and the tactility of material. Taylor Clements has a working studio in Brooklyn New York.
Andrew Pfeiffer McNay | Vulpe Studio
Vulpe Studio is a furniture design/build project in Brooklyn, NY led by Andrew Pfeiffer McNay. Focusing on hand-craftsmanship and quality of solid wood planes and forged metals, such as steel and bronze, the work created is honest in its simplicity of materials and form. This culminates in a product that is sincere in its desire to not only be utilitarian but pleasing to the eye and soothing to the mind: a balance of function, utility, and what design can do. The Siggi Chair is a continuation of chairs once made by Andrew’s grandfather, artist Homer “Siggi” Pfeiffer, adding a layer of personal history. In Andrew’s work, one finds the purest sense of what furniture design is, and does.
With an emphasis on line, plane, quality and materials, Oxford Street Furniture creates work that is sculpturally appealing as it is to use. A minimalist perspective where form follows function, and hand making with natural materials inspire the senses. Oxford Street furniture brings to their work an old school romance of making and a contemporary perspective of form and respect for natural materials. The seat plane rests the body backward, while the fluted beam comfortably supports the upper back, a surprisingly simple yet satisfying solution. Oxford Street Furniture maintains their studio in Austin Texas.
Andrew Striegl’s furniture pieces are an expression of movement in space: lines, planes and curves. His work focuses on the experience of making, using and building beauty. They read as architectural drawings, and physical poetics, technical in execution, and fluid in created form. Andrew Striegl works and lives in Brooklyn, NY.
The “Crushed” pieces of Hannah Vaughan are an alchemical approach to making, where one person’s trash becomes another’s treasured physical expression. Through hydraulic pressure and physical force, metal debris is transformed, giving a new life and perspective on beauty. Hannah’s work shines a sideways glean upon who we are, perfectly imperfect and always in flux, as we attempt to create and recreate how we live. What beauty does and what the creative mind can do. In Hannah’s work we see the evidence of the hand, and the creative mind at work, where content and form forcibly collude and collide, resulting in a conversation of beauty and purpose. Hannah maintains a studio in Newburgh, New York.
In the realm of furniture making, Michael Oates’ work sits firmly within the history and ethos of craftsmanship. An idealism of the handcrafted, heirloom quality and the beauty of natural materials. When viewing Michael’s work, one sees the evidence of the maker’s touch and creative eye, conversing with the wood’s natural grain and imperfections: a story of maker and tree that once was. Michael maintains a studio in Alpha New Jersey.
After a career in photography Kyle Cook moved to furniture making. His approach is personal and ever evolving, striving for balance and harmony of form, material and process. For Kyle, heirloom craftsmanship and visual appeal are paramount, focusing on grain direction and proportion, a balancing of traditional techniques much like processing a photo. This brings an instinctual and technique approach to his creating. Working with wood for him is a harmonious one of maker and tree, inviting the wood with its unique characteristics to speak to the final form that develops. Kyle Cook’s studio is in Flushing New York.
Kennith Nilson is a Brooklyn based designer and artist working within the craft of metal construction. A true metal worker, his pieces are of high craftsmanship and exude the passion of an artisan and the skills of an architect. Kennith’s work is heirloom quality, brought forth from the belly of the desire to create and make with the hand, a romancing of old world and new. An object is not merely about how it is to be used, but who made it and why. A relationship between time, person and context: beauty and function.
Peg Woodworking is a Brooklyn based company formed by designer and wood worker Kate Casey. In her Freya collection, modern simplicity of line and form are contrasted by traditional woven pattern. This is where era and ideas embrace. Where form follows function follows beauty: the physical manifestation of pure inspiration, pure iconography and ideology. This is lyricism in space, utilitarian sculpture and physical poetry. Perfect in rhythm and rhyme, subtle in exclamation.
With an intuitive approach to making, and deep appreciation for material, Ian Love’s work goes beyond object making into a personal connection of creating. A conversation or meditation between the maker/creator and material, that extends to the collector. Using locally sourced fallen wood, Ian is attentive to the use of all leftover material. Each piece is hand created and one of a kind, paying particular attention to the woods individual character. Ian Love resides in Long Island New York.
With an intention of creating reductively simplistic furniture and a belief that design affects the way we live and even feel, principal designer Cedric Martin achieves a subdued form that is closely tied to function, materials, and perfected craftsmanship. Located in upstate New York, Cedric’s furniture pieces imbue a calmness of form reminiscent of Minimalism with an ideology of Romanticism: a nod to the sublime and appreciation of nature.
PHAEDO is based in Hudson Valley, NY and founded by designer and artist Morgan Spaulding. His work can be articulated as going beyond material and form, speaking to the intimate relationship between user and object. The why before the what. There is a passion play that dwells within all that Spaulding creates: a dialogue of physicality, emotion and the history of making and craftsmanship. These pieces are not purely of utility, they are the self expression of the heart of a maker, and the passion of a creator: why one creates and our desire for beauty.
Based in NYC, Gaia’s clay work centers itself on the hand built and the many phases involved in working in ceramic, the inherent quality of chance associated with firing and working with paperclay, which allows for longer working time. For her the process of creating is firstly self fulfilling and intuitive, while letting the materials and processes have their say. It is within the process of creating that Gaia speaks her own language, a voice that hovers, waiting for the fine tuned ear to listen, appreciate and utilize.
Through mark making and imprinting using found natural objects such as shells and stones, Alex carves out a narrative of the natural world and the hand-created. Each piece is first wheel thrown, then faceted by carving, after which imprints of the natural world are layered upon the clay's surface, and slowly wood-fired. This creative endeavor brings the experience of the natural world to our homes and intimate lives. Alex Olson has a creative practice in Brooklyn, New York.
Inspired by nature and pulled toward the perfectly imperfect, Beverly Morrison creates each poetic piece by hand, achieving meditative results of gesture and form. A self described process-oriented individual she is deeply engaged in the sculptural dance of creating from start to finish. Beverly maintains a studio in Los Angeles, CA.
Oxum Foundation Inc., located in Brooklyn, New York, is a new and innovative, volunteer-based 501c3 not-for-profit with a mission to help young daughters and mothers who are survivors of trafficking and domestic abuse, through education and job creation. Established in 2021, the organization promotes economic empowerment among underserved women by contributing to their long-term education and career goals. This is accomplished alongside Oxum NYC—a for-profit brand that designs, manufactures, and sells home décor products to retailers and direct to consumers. In addition, Oxum NYC employs female survivors and pays competitive wages for their time and effort.
Through the initiative of OXUM, founder Niovi Forbes, and those under its umbrella, we see what design can do, the power of the creative mind and beauty. The perfectly imperfect. Each OXUM ceramic piece is made by hand and unique. It is through the hand created that we are reflected and nourished, brought to a higher level in our living. To be better, to do better, to try.
Shawn Hoven | Oandi Design LLC
The work of Shawn Hoven is centered upon craftsship, the physical making of objects be they furniture or sculptural work. Great attention is placed upon material use, its natural splendor of imperfections and beauty. His work is influenced by shadow, form and utility, and the need to create. Shawn is a master in wood turning and building form, and maintains a studio in St. Louis Missouri.
Inspired by process and intuition, these hand cast concrete pieces follow the philosophy of Wabi-Sabi: the perfectly imperfect and the inherent energy or soul of a created object. They are each, in their own right, beautiful in their depth of character, imperfections, form and presence, holding their own space while engaging with the onlooker. Here, we see beauty in all its incantations, a swirling of the brutal and the beautiful. CONCRETE POETICS is based in Brooklyn New York and led by Gary Fernandez.
Ilona Golovina’s work speaks to the poetics of the perfectly imperfect, the rough and asymmetrical. A quality that transcends time and trend, and expands towards experience of touch and memory. Her work is widely shown, reviewed and collected. Ilona’s studio is in NYC.
Laura Kastin is a NYC based artist working in clay, her work overall has a lyrical form that is both sculptural and utilitarian, a synthesis of the masculine and feminine, line and mass. Beyond form her work elicits the emotion of melody, visual splendor and the physical reasoning of why we create and collect.
Based in New York City, Elle’s ceramic sculptures have a biomorphic form that echoes the human condition of mind and emotion: the tug of will, despair, love and hope. Here one finds the cacophony of existence, always changing, reaching and furling back within. As a creator Elle is a romantic hopeful, believing in what the creative mind can do and what the vast realm of beauty brings, smoothing and informing our way forward. Elle’s work speaks to who we are, who we wish not to be and who we try to become.
John Sheppard is a New York City based ceramic artist whose work is characterized by clean geometric shapes, inspired by a range of influences: nature, Brutalism, Richard Serra and Art Deco. Each object is formed by hand, ensuring layers of depth, texture and controlled spontaneity. Here is where the perfectly imperfect is celebrated, where precision meets the imperfections of texture and technique, and the desire to create manifests into the realm of beauty. To live with John’s work is to appreciate physical form and know the influence of the hand created: living fully through the creative mind, and the salve of beauty.
Kathryn Robinson-Millen is a Brooklyn based artist whose work is informed by the natural and the manufactured: architectural, monolithic, organic and brutalist. Though structural, these vessels are intended for flower arranging, such as ikebana or sogetsu, further exploring the contrasts of the human built and the organic. Their painterly surfaces contrasted with the structural overall form, expands this exploration. These pieces delve deep into our natural tendencies of the ordered and organic, structure and simplicity, self expression and inspiration: our built and natural world.
Liadain’s work is the reflection of pure form and creation, the manifestation of intuition and the desire for physical making. Her work is a tying together of utility and beauty, our inner desires and physical needs: what beauty does and design brings. The evidence of the hand in her work brings a physical intimacy while the addition of scalloped arches to some add a nod to the romance of architecture.
Nicole’s work concerns itself with materials and their physical applications, what they are, how the are used and their inherent meaning. In this piece, Himalayan loom woven hemp fabric and twine are the focused materials. The line of hemp twine adds a meditative layer that crosses bridge like over the woven fabric. Her work does not concern itself with bravado, rather with the intuitive dialogue that takes place between the work and the person. A bridge of sort that facilitates meaning and purpose, and the awareness of seeing, rather than merely looking. Hemp is a natural, future forward material, which has many benefits for the self and our future, a bridging of time, person, place and material. In Nicole’s work we discover what the creative mind and beauty can do. Nicole Patel is a NYC artist. Hemp Foundation
Peter’s work on paper at first glance references pattern and color, but goes deeper in pulling us beyond looking and assuming, into seeing what we are seeing and feeling what we are feeling, in the moment. To slow down our pace and see the makers stroke, the tones of paint on paper, the perfectly imperfect mark making. Peter Valcarcel’s work is the perfect antidote to our contemporary world of instant gratification, assumption, and illusion. His work is poetic in its asking, and calm in its sharing and revealing. Peter is an artist/maker/designer in NYC.
Carl’s paintings delves deep into time, where we’ve been, where we are, where we’re going and within the dialogue between the person and the painting, who we are. His paintings explore the struggles of the human condition and the equanimity of living life. His creative work spans the arenas of art, literature, and design. He has a deep belief in what the creative mind can do, and founded NOURISH within this philosophy of living. He is currently on a sojourn, mapping the next phase of NOURISH.
Jon Hudson is a contemporary sculptor working with various natural stones and metals. His site-specific and interior work have been placed in twenty-three countries around the world. The work is influenced by Ancient Chinese jade ritual objects and time-space continuum, and the teachings of Zen Buddhism and Tai Chi. These sculptures are a conversation between us and nature, the physical and the ephemeral: body, mind, time, space, and mark-making. Who we are and becoming. His work has an intimacy in its textures, scale, and personal intention. Jon Hudson maintains a studio in Yellow Springs, OH.
A Floridian jeweler, Sandra’s work is exceptional in its craftsmanship and creative artistry. In her use of materials she is sculptor and painter, in her wearability she is master jeweler. One does not simply wear her work they experience it, as any other art form would be. Matasick’s work is of heirloom quality, a collectible statement of fine art.