Members Exhibition by The Furniture Society x Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts

ALEXAN­DRA MAVRIKIS

My furni­ture and sculp­ture-based work encour­age engage­ment, inter­ac­tiv­ity, and play while address­ing ideas related to gender, the body, and commer­cial viabil­ity in rela­tion to the perceived utility of the objects in our home. I stretch my work to the limits of what can be deemed util­i­tar­ian; its creation and meaning often come from its visual rela­tion to commonly and easily recog­nized house­hold objects. My over­ar­ch­ing goal is to have fun with the work and users by chal­leng­ing them to find the ways they can fit these pieces into their homes and thus into their lives. 

I explore ques­tions related to the body and how we live our inte­rior lives. Address­ing this through the reci­p­ro­ca­tion of texture, form, color, and pattern. My formal train­ing as a furni­ture maker and designer explores how studio furni­ture, though constructed with care and skill, need not be reliant on ​“usabil­ity”. To this very point, my work often focuses on the hindrance of one’s very ability to expe­ri­ence comfort and aid in famil­iar activ­ity. The through­line within all of my pieces is to allow mindful viewers the oppor­tu­nity to find humor in the every­day objects we surround ourselves with. By construct­ing objects that draw people away from the contem­po­rary distrac­tions and anxi­eties we are all wrapped up in, space is created, allow­ing for the possi­bil­ity of humor in the every­day. Asking how much func­tion­al­ity one will sacri­fice within the domes­tic setting, rather than the old adage of ​‘form follows func­tion’, I subscribe to the notion of ​‘form. function?’. 

Alexan­dra Mavrikis is an artist and researcher at the Appalachian Center for Craft. They received their MFA in Furni­ture Design from San Diego State Univer­sity in 2024.Their work focuses on sculp­tural furni­ture that hinders one’s ability to expe­ri­ence comfort and aid in famil­iar activ­ity. Mavrikis ques­tions ideas of the neces­sity of utility in the objects in our homes. Their work has been shown nation­ally at Mate­ri­als Hard & Soft (Denton, TX 2024) and Clare­mont College (CA,2022).

REBECCA JULI­ETTE-DUEX

Cotton, wool, or wood – all fibers are natu­rally absorp­tive and thus perfect for captur­ing sensa­tion: from memory, the present moment, and the imag­i­na­tion. They are tools for telling stories, whether nostal­gic or novel, and for creat­ing a personal journal. My own journal is written in two languages, that of textiles and furni­ture. You will find my work at the inter­sec­tion between these two prac­tices. The contrast of hard vs. soft, the overlap of stabil­ity vs. flexibility…these contra­dic­tions are at the heart of my craft. The new vocab­u­lary created when wood and cloth commu­ni­cate is natu­rally evoca­tive. With it, I am able to give shape, struc­ture, and dimen­sion to my own narra­tive and those of the people, places, and objects that have been vital contrib­u­tors to it.

Rebecca Juli­ette-Duex was first intro­duced to the value of craft by her mater­nal grand­par­ents. As a child, she watched their hands sew, saw, and shape objects out of prac­ti­cal neces­sity. They inspired her to study fiber art and furni­ture making, and to pursue craft as a personal neces­sity. A multi­dis­ci­pli­nary artist, Rebecca brings textiles and wood into conver­sa­tion to tell the story of her own creative heritage and inspire others to do the same. She places equal value on personal prac­tice, commu­nity engage­ment, and educa­tion. Rebecca volun­teers her time as Co-chair of the Tools Commit­tee for The Chairmaker’s Toolbox, an orga­ni­za­tion commit­ted to equity in the field of green wood­work­ing. She has taught work­shops at craft schools and colleges and exhib­ited her own work region­ally and nation­ally. Rebecca was the 2023 Gondring Artist-in-Resi­dence at Sawtooth School for Visual Art in Winston-Salem, NC. During her time as resi­dent, she forged a part­ner­ship with the SIDE Chair Library on the campus of Salem College that resulted the exhi­bi­tion Seating Assign­ment: Women in Contem­po­rary Chair­mak­ing and Craft Educa­tion which she curated.

KEENAN ROWE

My work repre­sents imag­ined objects and land­scapes from worlds that don’t quite exist. Created through slow, medi­ta­tive wood carving processes, I use texture, surface, and color to expose and obscure the role of the hand. 

My passion is for the fuzzy line between art, craft, and design. This is where designs are discur­sive and spec­u­la­tive, where art becomes some­thing to be inter­acted with as a part of our daily lives. These are brought together with tech­niques that refer­ence and are a part of our human culture of craft. 

I am an activist seeking to change the waste streams and utilize local wood, divert­ing it from land­fills. The origins of the mate­r­ial I work with are impor­tant to my quest for a hyper­local prac­tice. My work subverts expec­ta­tions of form and mate­ri­al­ity within lived space. I create furni­ture and deco­ra­tive sculp­ture for the home.

Keenan Rowe is an Artist and Educa­tor, born in Indi­anapo­lis, Indiana. He received his MFA in 3D Design from Cran­brook Academy of the Arts and a BS in Archi­tec­ture from Ball State University. 

Keenan is the Head of the Wood­work­ing and Furni­ture Program at the Windgate School of Art and Design at the Univer­sity of Arkansas Little Rock. He founded RVA Urban Wood, a Virginia-based collab­o­ra­tive group dedi­cated to educat­ing the commu­nity and divert­ing wood waste from local landfills.

This exhi­bi­tion is partially funded through The Furni­ture Soci­ety’s Exhibit­ing Furni­ture and Sculp­tural Objects Grant (EFASO)