Bio / Chris Ferebee, 1971
Chris Ferebee creates contemporary visual work across fine art, photography, design, and objects. His multidisciplinary practice is driven by an ongoing exploration of visual ideas, materials, processes, and contexts, often moving between disciplines to see how familiar forms can be reconsidered and given new life.
His work encompasses original artwork, photography, graphic and product design, furniture, editions, and collaborative projects. He is particularly interested in the possibilities that emerge when images, typography, architecture, historical references, and found visual artifacts are combined, transformed, or recontextualized. The work can move fluidly between gallery walls, interiors, products, and other environments, allowing ideas to take different forms without losing their character.
Ferebee's work has been licensed, published, exhibited, and collected internationally. Represented by Photonica/Getty Images and GraphiStock, his photography has appeared in projects for Apple, Microsoft, Sony Music, Alfred A. Knopf, Bank of America, American Express, and numerous other clients. His furniture and product designs have been exhibited internationally and featured in publications including International Design Yearbook, The Design Encyclopedia (Museum of Modern Art), Ultimate New York Design, and Bent Ply: The Art of Plywood Furniture.
Across these disciplines, Ferebee's practice reflects a longstanding interest in the possibilities of visual communication and the ways ideas can evolve through different forms, materials, and contexts. This approach informs projects ranging from limited-edition prints and exhibitions to photography, hospitality environments, licensing collaborations, and design-focused partnerships.
Ferebee lives and works in Norfolk, Virginia.
For artwork pricing, commissions, design and branding inquiries, or any other info, please contact.
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Statement
My work begins with curiosity rather than a predetermined outcome. I'm interested in how images, objects, typography, architecture, and the artifacts of print culture accumulate meaning over time...and what happens when those systems are reorganized into something unexpected.
Growing up surrounded by unique collections of natural specimens, fossils, sea shells, books, models, and carefully chosen decorative objects taught me that relationships between things can be just as compelling as the things themselves. That way of seeing continues to shape my practice, whether I'm making assemblages, collage, prints, photography, sculptural work or designing furniture.
Being largely self-taught has allowed me to move freely between disciplines over the past three decades. Rather than treating art, design, and craft as separate pursuits, I approach each as another way of investigating composition, material, memory, and visual language.
Some works celebrate the optimism of mid-century print culture and modernism; others explore quieter ideas about place, history, and perception. Regardless of the medium, my goal is to make work that rewards close looking, sparks curiosity, and ultimately optimizes for optimism.
The Studio
Mission
Chris Ferebee Studio creates contemporary visual work across fine art, photography, design, and objects. The practice explores ideas across art, photography, design, and objects, moving freely between materials, processes, and visual languages to create work that is thoughtful, distinctive, and intended to be experienced, interpreted, and lived with.
Vision
To develop a distinctive, multidisciplinary body of work and collaborate with designers, architects, brands, cultural institutions, and other creative partners to bring original visual ideas into spaces, objects, and experiences.
Approach
The studio moves freely between disciplines, allowing ideas to determine the medium rather than the other way around. Some work exists as singular original artwork; other ideas can become photography, editions, products, environments, or collaborations.
The goal is consistent: to make thoughtful, visually compelling work that has a life beyond the moment in which it is created.
Bibliography
2019 - Los Angeles Modern Auctions February 17, 2019 Modern Art & Design Auction catalog
2018 - Los Angeles Modern Auctions February 25, 2018 Modern Art & Design Auction catalog
2017 - Wright | Design, 8 June, 2017 auction catalog
2016 - Los Angeles Modern Auctions May 22, 2016 Modern Art & Design Auction catalog
2015 - Wright | Design, 22 October, 2015 auction catalog
2015 - Los Angeles Modern Auctions 'October 11, 2015 Modern Art & Design Auction' catalog
2013 - Los Angeles Modern Auctions 'May 19, 2013 Modern Art & Design Auction' catalog
2013 - The Design Cookbook: Recipes for a Stylish Home, by Kelly Edwards
2012 - Los Angeles Modern Auctions 'May 6, 2012 Modern Art & Design' auction catalog
2009 - Fashioning Felt, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
2009 - Bukowski's Auctions 'Contemporary & Modern Autumn Sale 2009' catalog
2007 - Sotheby's 'Important 20th Century Design' auction catalog, June 2007
2006 - Ultimate New York Design, teNeues
2006 - Young Designers Americas, Daab
2006 - Communicating With Pattern: Stripes, RotoVision
2005 - International Design Yearbook 20, Abbeville Press/Laurence King
2005 - The Conran Shop 2005-06 Furniture Catalog
2004 - The Design Encyclopedia, MoMA/Laurence King Publishing
2003 - Bent Ply: The Art of Plywood Furniture, Princeton Architectural Press
2003 - International Design Yearbook 18, Abbeville Press/Laurence King
2002 - Furniture Design, teNeues Publications
1995 - The End of Print: The Graphic Design of David Carson, Chronicle Books
1994 - Graphis Alternative Photography 95, Graphis Press Corp.
Art Exhibitions (Group shows)
2026 - Norfolk Academy Art Show, Norfolk, VA
2019 - Norfolk Academy Art Show, Norfolk, VA
2010 - 5x7 2010, Arthouse, Austin, TX
2009 - 5x7 2009, Arthouse, Austin, TX
2007 - 5x7 2007, Arthouse, Austin, TX
2005 - 5x7 2005, Arthouse, Austin, TX
2005 - Texas Biennial 2005, Eastside Artists Coop, Austin, TX
2004 - "The Big Show" juried exhibition, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX
2004 - "Mix Minds" group show, Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston, TX
2003 - "Night of 1000 Drawings", Artists Space, NYC
2003 - "Young Designers Showcase", Clockwork Apple, NYC
2001 - "New Design New York", Totem Gallery, NYC
1998 - Mid-Atlantic Juried Exhibition, d'Art Center, Norfolk, VA
1995 - Mid-Atlantic Juried Exhibition, d'Art Center, Norfolk, VA
1994 - Mid-Atlantic Juried Exhibition, Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Newport News, VA
Awards & Notable
2019 - Hive Shelving Unit prototype acquired by the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA
2006 - Hive Shelving nominated for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum's ‘People's Design Award’
2005 - Included in the International Design Yearbook 20, edited by Marcel Wanders
2003 - Included in the International Design Yearbook 18, edited by Karim Rashid
2001 - Design Distinction Award : I.D. Magazine's Annual Design Review 2001
2000 - Good Design Award, Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design
1998 - Award of Distinction, Mid-Atlantic Juried Exhibition, d'Art Center, Norfolk, VA
1994 - Award of Merit, Mid-Atlantic Juried Exhibition, Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Newport News, VA
Furniture Exhibitions, Auctions, Etc
2021 - (ongoing) Extraordinary Ordinary Things, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA
2019 - Bend it Like Breuer: Modern Plywood of the 20th Century, R & Company, NYC
2018 - Wright | Art + Design, July 19, 2018 auction, Chicago
2018 - Los Angeles Modern Auctions February 25, 2018 Modern Art & Design Auction, Los Angeles, CA
2018 - Wright | Art + Design, January 18, 2018 auction, Chicago
2017 - Wright | Design, June 8, 2017 auction, Chicago
2016 - Los Angeles Modern Auctions May 22, 2016 Modern Art & Design Auction, Los Angeles, CA
2015 - Wright | Design, 22 October, 2015 auction, Chicago
2015 - Los Angeles Modern Auctions October 11, 2015 Modern Art & Design auction, Los Angeles, CA
2013 - Los Angeles Modern Auctions May 19, 2013 Modern Art & Design auction, Los Angeles, CA
2012 - Los Angeles Modern Auctions May 6, 2012 Modern Art & Design auction, Los Angeles, CA
2010 - American Design in Paris, Triode Design, Paris
2009 - Fashioning Felt, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, NYC
2009 - Bukowski's Auctions, Contemporary & Modern Autumn Sale 2009, Sweden
2007 - Sotheby's June Auction of 'Important 20th Century Design', NYC
2004 - 100% Design, London
2004 - Scandinavian Furniture Fair, Copenhagen, Denmark
2004 - IMM - Cologne Furniture Fair, Cologne, Germany
2003 - Regeneration, re:place studio, NYC
2001 - New Design/New York, Totem Gallery, NYC
2001 - Carrefour de la Creation, Centre Pompidou, Paris
2001 - T.A.G. Team curated by *Surface Magazine and Totem Design, Milan + NYC
2000 - ICFF International Contemporary Furniture Fair, NYC
Editorial
Contemporary Collage Magazine #6, 2025
Eye Magazine 108, 2025
Plastikcomb Magazine No. 8, 2024 / interview
Contemporary Collage Magazine #38, 2024
Plastikcomb Magazine No. 7, 2024
Plastikcomb Magazine No. 6, 2023
Audi Magazine - Dec. 2012
Elle Decoration, Czech Republic, winter 2010
HOME - France - Oct. 2008
The Wall Street Journal - June 23, 2007
Elle Magazine - UK - April 2006
Urbis - New Zealand - April 2006
Virginia Living - July 2005
Dwell - June 2004
Readymade - May 2004
Azure - March 2004
Architectural Record - March 2003
Monument - Australia / Aug.-Sept. 2002
Nylon - May 2002
Studio Voice - Japan - March 2002
Clear - Feb. 2002
Case Da Abitare - Italy / Jan.-Feb. 2002
I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review 2001
Intramuros - France - Dec. 2001
Azure - Nov.-Dec. 2001
City Magazine - Sept.-Oct. 2001
Design Diffusion News - Italy / Oct. 2001
City Magazine - March-April 2001
H.O.M.E. - Germany / May-June 2001
Surface* - Issue #29 2001
Brutus - Japan / NYC Issue 2000
Raygun Magazine 29 - Sept. 1995
Raygun Magazine 20 - Oct. 1994
Raygun Magazine 14 - March 1994
Raygun Magazine 13 - Feb. 1994
archive / Web & Social features
stefan sagmeister IG, Jan. 2024
stefan sagmeister IG, July 2022
moco loco IG, Jan. 2017
knoll IG, Sept. 2016
moco loco IG, April 2016
leicacraft IG, June 2016
moco loco, Jan. 2015
the typologist, Oct. 2014
artnet, 2013
designboom, May 2013
swiss miss, June. 2011
designdir, Oct. 2010
apartment therapy, Sept. 2010
happy mundane, June 2010
nytimes mag, Jan. 2010
archiscene, May 2009
detnk, Feb. 2009
daily icon, Feb. 2009
yatzer, Feb. 2009
designlines, Aug. 2007
core77, June 2007
josh spear, June 2007
notcot, June 2007
cool hunting, June 2007
moco loco, June 2007
the apartment, March 2007
coudal partners, March 2007
netdiver, March 2007
swiss miss, Feb. 2007
sensory impact, Jan. 2007
hustler of culture, Oct. 2006
apartment therapy, Jan. 2006
design*sponge, Jan. 2006
designspotter, 2005
2modern, Oct. 2005
moco loco, Sept. 2005
design*sponge, Feb. 2005
moco loco, Feb. 2005
design*sponge, Dec. 2004
