The Reboli Center for Art and History, 64 Main St., Stony Brook has announced that noted Long Island-based furniture designer and craftsman David N. Ebner will be the Center’s November Artisan of the Month.
Ebner is known as one of the foremost makers of American contemporary furniture. Since the early 1970s, he has focused on a wide range of remarkable and innovative furniture design, working in wood, bronze and bamboo.
“I approach my art intuitively as well as intellectually, drawing on inspiration wherever I find it. I’ve explored a variety of directions and themes over the years, but each piece is treated as an art object with concern for mymaterial and honesty to its inherent qualities. For me, one’s creative ability is demonstrated in the diversity of the pieces and what one learns from change,” he explains.
A graduate of the prestigious School for American Craftsmen at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Ebner was fortunate to have the opportunity to study under the esteemed artist, Wendell Castle, who was known as the father of the American Studio Furniture and was the head of the wood working department at RIT. There he discovered that there could be “an artistic approach” to woodworking.
Upon graduating from RIT, he studied at the London School of Furniture Design.
After two years in the armed forces, which is where Ebner met the late Joseph Reboli for whom the Center is named, he founded a studio on the south shore of Long Island in 1973. There he pursued a career as a full-time studio craftsman. Mr. Ebner and Joe Reboli continued their friendship as they both lived on Long Island and participated in Arts and Crafts fairs to sell their work. In fact, when Ebner first created his scallion coat rack it was Joe Reboli who painted it. See photo of Scallion Coat Rack.
Having spent the last thirty years as a furniture craftsman, David Ebner is considered by curators and collectors as an integral part of the “studio craft” furniture movement. He feels that he is creating the “antiques of tomorrow.”
Pivotal to his career was Ebner’s inclusion in Exploration II/The New Furniture at the American Crafts Museum. Some of his pieces have found a home at the National Collection of Fine Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.; American Craft Museum, New York, NY; High Museum, Atlanta, Georgia; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Yale University Gallery;
The Art Institute of Chicago; FORBES Magazine Collection, NYC. Ebner’s work is also in the homes of Marilyn and the late James Simons, Isabella Rossellini, Glenn Close and others.
In conjunction with this exhibit, David N. Ebner will be the guest speaker at the Reboli Center’s Third Friday on November 15 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The talk is free and reservations are not necessary. Refreshments will be served.
Although several pieces of David Ebner’s furniture have been available at the Reboli Center since its opening, this is the first time that Mr. Ebner is the featured artisan. Lois Reboli, the founder of the Center said, “Having known David for a long time I am thrilled that he will be our featured artisan – his work is just magnificent.”
The Reboli Center is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, please call 631-751-7707 or visit www.rebolicenter.org
