Michael Hurwitz

Michael Hurwitz has been making studio furni­ture for forty-five years, since earning his BFA from Boston University’s Program in Artistry in 1979. His work is included in several public collec­tions, includ­ing the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, MA, the Philadel­phia Museum of Art, PA, the Smith­son­ian Museum of Amer­i­can Art, Wash­ing­ton, DC and the Metro­pol­i­tan Museum of Art in NY. He has received numer­ous grants and awards includ­ing fellow­ships from the Mass­a­chu­setts Endow­ment for the Arts, Penn­syl­va­nia Council on the Arts, National Endow­ment for the Arts, Tiffany Foun­da­tion, Pew Char­i­ta­ble Trust, the Japan Foun­da­tion, and the US-Japan Friend­ship Commis­sion. His recent honors include becom­ing Fellow of the Amer­i­can Craft Council, a Mont­gomery Fellow of Dart­mouth College, and receiv­ing a Masters of the Medium Award from the Renwick Alliance and a Vision­ary Artist Award from the Smithsonian Museum.

Hurwitz strives to make furni­ture that is time­less, elegant, and respect­ful of the nature of the mate­ri­als. Toward that end he has commit­ted to a way of working that includes gener­at­ing a great quan­tity of studies, mock-ups and exper­i­ments with mate­ri­als for most new work. Currently he has inten­si­fied his career-long focus on allow­ing the phys­i­cal struc­ture of the work to define its pres­ence. The inter­est in maxi­miz­ing the strength-to-weight ratio and search­ing for the place where that balance exists most harmo­niously contin­ues to be a primary direc­tive for him.

For Hurwitz, the commit­ment to the careful making of an object is an impor­tant part of the work’s iden­tity. He believes that fine crafts­man­ship includes more than the knowl­edge of mate­ri­als and the expe­ri­ence of prac­tice— it also asks that you enter into empathy with the mate­r­ial, and to be fully present and respon­sive within that union. His hope is that this spirit is embod­ied in the work and is palpa­ble for the viewer.

Learn more about Michael:

https://www.michaelhurwitzfurn…
https://​fine​fur​ni​ture​maker​.com…

Frame/​arch/​trestle — bleached fiddle back White Oak

Base — Texas Cedar Elm (Ulmus cras­si­fo­lia) from Los Angeles Arboretum

Compass — Machined/​carved Acrylic, Steel pin, Ticon­deroga # 2 Pencil 

Plates. — Engraved Brushed Nickel

The Arch and Trestle and the choice of bleached White Oak was influ­enced by Michael’s Chest on Trestle type works. The Base was made from Texas Cedar Elm that was damaged in a storm at the Los Angeles Arbore­tum. The Compass with moving parts is milled/​carved from acrylic block.

Both the Tasman­ian Blue Gum Euca­lyp­tus in Johns award and the Texas Cedar Elm in Michaels were taken down in the same time frame as other trees that were damaged or removed due to storm damage and provided to wood­work­ers and artist for a show called ​“Forces of Nature II”, A title which seems appro­pri­ate to both this years awardees.

The Award of Distinc­tion trophy was designed and created by wood­worker and TFS member Fred Rose.

Contri­bu­tions to the Award of Distinc­tion program enhance The Furni­ture Soci­ety’s Educa­tional Grants offer­ing finan­cial assis­tance to TFS members for professional development.

We hope you will consider support­ing this worthy cause in Michael’s honor!