Volume Gallery is participating in the 2025 edition of The Armory Show with a presentation of innovative chairs by Robell Awake as part of Function, a new section which considers how artists engage with and puncture the tenants of design, curated by Ebony L. Haynes.
Robell Awake’s chairs are skillfully handmade with great reverence and appreciation for the work and techniques of under-recognized Black craftspeople throughout history. Awake continues a rich tradition of updating the ladder back chair, using inlaid materials and carved patterns rife with meaning and relevance. Recent chairs have allusions to spiritual practices, echoing historically sacred imagery calling for divine healing and protection. They feature carved faces, symbols, and creatures drawing from various talismanic practices of the African diaspora. Awake’s work centers Black aesthetic traditions and histories, creating objects that are both deeply rooted and radically forward-looking. By merging ancestral practices with contemporary concerns, Awake’s talismanic chairs serve as acts of resistance and resilience, grounding us in traditions of survival, expression, and protection.
Robell Awake is a recipient of the Center for Craft’s Craft Research Fund Artist Fellowship and has taught at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Penland School of Craft, and the Woodworking School at Pine Croft. He has presented at the Furniture Society, Warren Wilson College, Berea College, Washington College, and the North Bennet Street School. Awake was recently selected as one of the Dwell 24, Dwell magazine’s awards for the best emerging designers from around the world. His recent book, A Short History of Black Craft in Ten Objects, published through Princeton Architectural Press (2025), features ten illustrated essays on handcrafted objects and their makers, providing invaluable insight into Black history and craftsmanship, and was the subject of an exclusive segment on National Public Radio. His work is included in important public collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, and he is producing forthcoming commissions for the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD and High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA. He is represented by Volume Gallery and his first solo exhibition with the gallery was in 2025.
