Duncan Gowdy

"I want people to enjoy living with my furniture as much as I enjoy making it."

Duncan Gowdy enjoys finding alternative functional uses for objects. He aims to find objects whose forms will inspire the design and function of a piece of furniture. Gowdy often finds objects for potential works while looking through books (and turning them upside down), going through old barns, looking through antique stores, or stumbling upon something around his house.

The basic forms of Early American folk art influence Gowdy's object-inspired work. He combines several construction methods, including mortise-and-tenon joinery, metal work, turning, and hand- and machine-shaping.

Duncan Gowdy earned his BFA in furniture design from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and his MFA in furniture design from San Diego State University. Gowdy has made and exhibited his work throughout the United States for more than twenty years.

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Selected Exhibitions & Awards
Finalist, Artists' Fellowship Program, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Massachusetts , 2015
Cabinets of Curiosity, Wharton Esherick Museum, Malvern, PA, 2014
Made in Massachusetts: Studio Furniture of the Bay State, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA, 2013
Award of Distinction, CraftBoston, Boston, MA, 2012
National Treasures: History in the Making, Ohio Craft Museum, Columbus, OH, 2011