About

Jonathan Chiu is an artist who obtained his undergraduate degree in Furniture Design from the Minneapolis College of Art & Design. His practice involves making objects that create spaces of empathy, humor, and interaction.

Artist Statement

I experiment with a furniture aesthetic that is unconventional but remains approachable and encourages interaction. While my work operates outside of conventional standards of furniture, it is integral that the pieces do not overwhelm the viewer with complexity, but create a natural consideration for how they relate to a person’s body and hands.

Throughout my process, I take an analytical approach as I design my pieces to evaluate the direction my work is taking throughout each step. I rarely begin with a complete idea of how the finished piece will appear because as I learn while making an object and become more informed of how it will best function. As I develop each outline, I narrow the main concepts to revolve around unexplored ideas, rather than resemble models that would reflect traditional furniture. In doing so, I aim to take pre-existing functions and expand or transform them into new gestures. This requires an element of risk and uncertainty not only in visual aesthetics, but also in how the work will perform or be understood.

In my recent work, pinewood has been my medium of choice for the natural ways in which a person’s hands responds to the texture of wood. As a common material in construction it holds an unassuming quality, and its lack of preciousness gives me room to test a wide mixture of ideas without constraint. I have been using equipment such as an angle grinder and rotary tool to carve and sculpt its form into different pieces of furniture. I am precise with technique to express intentionality and care into the making of the object but not to an extent that insists on caution from the viewer that would inhibit their experience in order to avoid damaging the object.

As my practice develops, I intend to explore the ways in which furniture informs the body language and gestures that people exhibit in defined spaces. My goal is for the work to reflect a consideration for how the body interacts with an object and how those objects contribute to the understanding of their environment. I believe our body and mind naturally create these relationships so there is value in exploring how to find empathy and humor in different spaces.