During the first phase of my career, I cofounded Lunar in 1984. Lunar quickly established itself as a firm that was highly regarded by clients, employees and the design community. Over my three-decade tenure at Lunar, we won over three hundred design awards and our work was showcased in over twenty museum exhibitions, including the prestigious MOMA, SFMOMA, and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. In 2014 LUNAR was awarded the esteemed Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum’s National Design Award in recognition of our three-decade body of work. 

In the concluding years at Lunar, I immersed myself in several conceptual furniture projects, captivated by the notion of furniture as art. These conceptual explorations unveiled a realm where objects were visual statements that weren't confined by business requirements - a departure from the constraints of designing and producing commercial products. This revealing journey led me led to a profound transformation - from an industrial designer to an artist.

In 2019, I embarked on a new journey by founding Furbershaworks which serves as a platform to create and showcase my art furniture. The Furbershaworks name embodies my drive to create works and also the toil associated with that process. 

 The Conceptual Work section of my website showcases the work I do to explore the boundaries of art furniture. One of those explorations led to the creation of the ChaTaT Bench, a sensual and organic fiberglass piece. Nevertheless, through the creation of my pieces, my primary dedication is to elevate plywood, a material that is often considered pedestrian. I seek that viewers of my work reconsider plywood as a material with its own inherent visual language which reveals qualities that are unique to engineered wood.
A central theme in my plywood work is the relationship between what appears solid and what actually exists. Through the layering of plywood parts, I create forms that appear solid yet are about half material and half empty space. The resulting pieces challenge assumptions about weight and structure, inviting viewers to look beyond first impressions. Negative space is as important as material, and much of the visual tension in the work arises from their interaction.

I rely heavily on my design background to create and make these plywood pieces. Leveraging computer-aided design (CAD) enables me to use computer numerical control (CNC) machining. This technology ensures that the parts of my art furniture pieces fit together precisely based on the geometry I've defined in CAD. This digital technology enables intricate details that traditional woodworking techniques are unable to easily achieve. Following the CNC machining process, I painstakingly sand, finish, and assemble the parts. I also proudly brand the Furbershaworks name on each art furniture piece with a branding iron, .

The satisfaction of envisioning someone discovering the branded Furbershaworks name on their piece in the distant future brings me immense joy. Additionally, the appreciation and recognition of my work in museum settings serve as a significant source of fulfillment - this is the legacy I aspire to leave behind.

My pieces can be viewed in the  Overview of Pieces section of the website. Clicking on images on this page leads to pages specific to each piece.

If you’re interested in purchasing a piece, please contact me at
info@furbershaworks.com.

Gerard Furbershaw