NIFEMI OGUNRO’S SCULPTURAL OBJECTS MOVE BEYOND THE CHAIR

Born in Lyon and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, Nifemi Ogunro learned about industrial design through a Google search in high school, trying to find something that satisfied both her artistic desire and her parents’ expectation that she would enter a technical field. Three days before a coffee table was due in her sophomore woodworking class, she flipped the frame upside down, and still got a passing grade — as long as the table was functional, she realized, its design could really be anything. Drawn to this expressive potential, Ogunro joined woodworking workshops with “mostly retired old men — that was the vibe,” she says, before moving to Colorado to assist sculptor Michael Beitz. She refined her own craft in his workshop, creating sculptural furniture defined by curved lines, organic shapes, and careful carving that does justice to each material, from bendable plywood to walnut. She named three of her early pieces after her family members, including Tob(i), after her dad. “Making that chair, I had to account for how the wood moved. I felt connected to my dad because he’s an engineer. We don’t have the same job, but we’re both working with materials in a practical way,” she says. “A big thing about my practice is thinking about bodies — I never want my objects to read like a chair. A friend borrowed a piece to do a performance with, and they found out it was more comfortable to sit on it a different way,” Ogunro says. “It’s about watching people interact with the work.”