"A Throne of No Return, A Chair for Us All" Chair

One-of-a-kind, 2023.

"The myths about who has historically made furniture felt just as real a barrier to me when I decided to pursue a life in craft - equal in difficulty to the financial cost of starting a practice and the whiteness of the field as a whole. Combating these erasures by reclaiming obscured and appropriated histories is now an essential part of my artistic practice." - Robell Awake

Robell is a chairmaker, teacher and researcher based in Atlanta, Georgia. His work aims to center Black aesthetic traditions and histories through scholarship and craft. He is a recipient of the 2022 Craft Research Fund - Artist Fellowship and is working on a forthcoming book from Princeton Architectural Press. Robell has taught at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and has presented at the Furniture Society, Warren Wilson College, Berea College and the North Bennet Street School.