Roy McMakin
American Artist
1956
One of the most important names in functional art, Roy McMakin bridges the gap between the conceptual and the practical with beautiful, handcrafted furniture pieces that explore ideas of memory, language, identity, anonymity and meaning.
A multi-disciplinary maker, he has created works that refuse to be neatly classified, veering between design, architecture, craft and curation. In 1987 he opened the Domestic Furniture Company, making meticulously constructed, one-off pieces by hand and developing a style that has been described as “hillbilly modernism”.
Returning to sculpture, his recent work has been inspired by or has incorporated found furniture, testing the conventions of the domestic vernacular by making changes and interventions – some subtle and some more obvious – and taking these objects to the edge of what is considered useful.
Now in his 60s and based in Seattle, McMakin has had more than 30 solo exhibitions and seen his work acquired by museums including LA County Museum of Art (LACMA) and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA).
