Skip to main content

Header Navigation

Artists

Robell Awake

He // Him // His

Chairmaker

Atlanta, Georgia

A brown skinned man with short black hair sits outside surrounded by greenery and framed by two of his chairs on each side. He is wearing a black t-shirt and glasses. His elbows are on his knees and his hands are clasped as he smiles at the camera.

Photo by Dustin Chambers.

“By honoring the methods and materials of green woodworking and integrating the improvisational aesthetics of Black art traditions, my practice becomes a bridge between histories and futures.”

Robell Awake is a chairmaker based in Atlanta, Georgia. Awake’s work centers Black aesthetic traditions and histories through scholarship and craft. His chairs have been acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and he has a forthcoming commission for the Baltimore Museum of Art. His book, A Short History of Black Craft in Ten Objects, was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2025 and named one of the best books of the year by Publisher's Weekly. In 2024, Awake was selected as one of the Dwell 24, Dwell Magazine’s awards for the best emerging designers from around the world. 

He is a recipient of the Center for Craft’s Craft Research Fund Artist Fellowship and has taught at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Penland School of Craft, and the Woodworking School at Pine Croft. Awake has presented at the Furniture Society, Warren Wilson College, Berea College, Washington College, and the North Bennet Street School.

Donor -This award was generously supported by Rockefeller Foundation.

This artist page was last updated on: 01.14.2026

Craft
A khaki colored ladder back chair with a tan and black stripped woven seat sits atop a work bench in a dimly lit room with a white wall in the background. The chair has two back slats that are carved and painted with images of a winged cherub-like figure holding captive a demon-like person with fangs and a red tongue sticking out.

Blue Origin by Robell Awake, 2025. White oak, hickory, paper cord, rhinestones, milk paint, acrylic ink, acrylic paint, found packaging materials, currency, corrugated plastic, and Prozac, 34 × 17 × 17 inches.

Photo by Dustin Chambers.

A khaki colored ladder back chair with a black woven seat sits atop a work bench in a dimly lit room with a white wall in the background. The chair has three back slats with carvings that are incised as well as going through the back slats. The slats depict a double-headed monster figure with teeth that have rhinestones inlayed into them.

Craigslist by Robell Awake, 2025. White oak, hickory, paper cord, rhinestones, reproductions of Zealy daguerreotypes, 35.5 × 18 × 16 inches.

Photo by Dustin Chambers.

Process video for chair commission, 2023.