David N. Ebner Chairs
Master woodworker David N. Ebner is an integral contributor to the American Studio furniture movement. Along with like-minded artisans such as George Nakashima, Sam Maloof, Arthur Espenet Carpenter and Wharton Esherick, the New York native advocates for the craft of well-made furniture that is not mass-produced. As Ebner himself has stated, “[I am] creating the antiques of tomorrow.”
Ebner was born in 1945 in Buffalo and attended the School for American Craftsmen at the Rochester Institute of Technology. There, he studied under celebrated American furniture maker Wendell Castle who taught Ebner “the artistic approach” to woodworking. After graduating, Ebner sought to further his education at the London School of Furniture Making. Then, following a two-year stint in the US Armed Forces, he decided to pursue a career as a woodworker and furniture designer, opening a studio on Long Island, New York, in 1973.
As a devotee of Castle’s teachings of creating furniture as a form of functional art, Ebner eschewed the trend of making furniture out of plastics and other synthetic materials — which gained steam with the likes of venturesome Scandinavian modernist designer Verner Panton during the 1960s and 1970s — embracing instead the American Craftsman style that formed the basis of the American Studio furniture movement.
Working with a range of woods, Ebner has designed sculptural live-edge dining room tables, shapely bamboo stools and side tables characterized by swooping organic curves, and statement-making cabinets in lustrous sapele wood, each elegantly hand-carved. “... Each piece is treated as an art object with concern for my material and honesty to its inherent qualities,” Ebner has said. “For me, one’s creative ability is demonstrated in the diversity of the pieces and what one learns from change.”
Ebner has exhibited extensively throughout his career, including shows at the American Crafts Museum and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and the Guild Hall Museum in East Hampton. His works are in permanent collections at the Smithsonian Institute, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Find vintage David N. Ebner chairs, tables, benches and decorative objects on 1stDibs.
21st Century and Contemporary American American Craftsman David N. Ebner Chairs
Wood
21st Century and Contemporary American American Craftsman David N. Ebner Chairs
Maple
21st Century and Contemporary American American Craftsman David N. Ebner Chairs
Wood
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern David N. Ebner Chairs
Oak
21st Century and Contemporary American American Craftsman David N. Ebner Chairs
Bamboo
2010s Portuguese David N. Ebner Chairs
Oak, Walnut
20th Century Polish Mid-Century Modern David N. Ebner Chairs
Velvet, Beech
2010s Turkish Modern David N. Ebner Chairs
Ash
20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern David N. Ebner Chairs
Brass
21st Century and Contemporary French Mid-Century Modern David N. Ebner Chairs
Metal
2010s Italian Modern David N. Ebner Chairs
Wood
20th Century Mid-Century Modern David N. Ebner Chairs
Wood
Early 1900s English Arts and Crafts Antique David N. Ebner Chairs
Oak
Early 2000s American David N. Ebner Chairs
Walnut
1950s English Arts and Crafts Vintage David N. Ebner Chairs
Oak
2010s Danish Modern David N. Ebner Chairs
Steel
20th Century American Organic Modern David N. Ebner Chairs
Leather, Fabric, Rattan
