Alexander Bannan is a Richmond, Virginia based furniture maker. He is originally from Roanoke, Virginia, a small city at the far reaches of the Shenandoah Valley in the Appalachian Mountains. Growing up in this historic and diverse community of artists, musicians, and craftsmen influenced his artistic endeavors in his young adulthood. In 2016 he received a Bachelor’s of Fine Art in Craft/Material Studies with a focus on woodworking and furniture design from Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts, Richmond, Virginia. While at VCU he discovered his infatuation for wood and the traditions that surround furniture building.
Bannan is drawn to furniture because it is a recognizable and universally engaging medium. Its functionality in the home makes a piece of furniture both a utilitarian and uniquely curated object. On the surface his work is functional furniture and wooden objects, but it stems from a deep appreciation for his hometown and the surrounding geologic formations. Bannan employs techniques to reclaim, recycle, and repurpose wood when possible in conjunction with other locally sourced lumber. This is done in an effort to harken back to traditions of woodworking and furniture building from his home in the Appalachian Mountains, while also seeking to work in a more environmentally conscious manner.
Currently Bannan works out of a shared studio/wood shop in Richmond. He makes and sells furniture and other wooden items on commission and from original designs. Bannan has also traveled to crafts schools around the country, like Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine and Anderson Ranch Arts Center near Aspen, Colorado to study contemporary and traditional furniture techniques. Bannan has exhibited pieces in furniture and sculpture shows like Sitting Pretty: The Chair Re-Evisioned (June 21, 2018-August 12, 2018) at the Moss Arts Center, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg; From These Woods (Summer 2017) at The Moss Arts Center; and Constructed Visions II at the St. Louis Artist's Guild in St. Louis, Missouri (early 2017).