Hugo Nakashima-Brown is a teaching artist, designer and woodworker with a background in painting and furniture making. He holds a BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design and a degree in cabinet and furniture making from the North Bennet Street School. His multidisciplinary experience spans woodworking, design, curation and production studio management, allowing him to blend diverse perspectives into his craft.
Trained as a 17–19th century woodworker, Nakashima-Brown draws on historical precedents and centuries of craftsmanship to create furniture that balances timeless aesthetics with the functional needs of the 21st century. Inspired by the Japanese tea ceremony (chanoyu), where design, function and aesthetics converge, he uses chanoyu and Japanese/American folk art as frameworks to explore the intersection of art, craft, sculpture and performance/installation. His current research examines the overlooked, bidirectional influence between Chinese and American furniture traditions.
Nakashima-Brown’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and has been featured in Monocle, Architectural Digest and Fine Woodworking. He has received support from institutions including the Penland School of Craft, Winterthur Museum, Mt. Fuji Wood Culture Society, Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, Oak Spring Garden Foundation and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. He also serves on the selection committee for the Alex Brown Foundation.
Studio: Spatial Dynamics is a studio-based inquiry into physical, spatial and temporal phenomena. The study of Spatial Dynamics is rooted in the necessity to consider forces and their effects on structure. Force is the consequence of energy. In Spatial Dynamics the energy and resultant forces are studied in actual motion, stability, and materiality. The structures of physical, spatial and temporal phenomena are studied through additive, subtractive, transformative, iterative, and ephemeral processes both analog and digital. Mediums and materials that are commonly explored and utilized have a broad range of characteristics due to their organic and synthetic sources. Most assignments utilize methods such as preliminary sketches and diagrams in research, planning, and experimental processes. Assignments reference the histories and theories of art and design and include areas of inquiry that extend to disciplines such as the sciences, music, dance, film, and theater.
Enrollment is limited to first-year undergraduate students.
Major Requirement | BFA
Studio: Spatial Dynamics is a studio-based inquiry into physical, spatial and temporal phenomena. The study of Spatial Dynamics is rooted in the necessity to consider forces and their effects on structure. Force is the consequence of energy. In Spatial Dynamics the energy and resultant forces are studied in actual motion, stability, and materiality. The structures of physical, spatial and temporal phenomena are studied through additive, subtractive, transformative, iterative, and ephemeral processes both analog and digital. Mediums and materials that are commonly explored and utilized have a broad range of characteristics due to their organic and synthetic sources. Most assignments utilize methods such as preliminary sketches and diagrams in research, planning, and experimental processes. Assignments reference the histories and theories of art and design and include areas of inquiry that extend to disciplines such as the sciences, music, dance, film, and theater.
Enrollment is limited to first-year undergraduate students.
Major Requirement | BFA
