Against the Grain

Against the Grain
September 13-October 25, 2025
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 13, 6-8pm, during Second Saturday ArtWalk (Click here for Facebook event)

Vision
Florida CraftArt announces Against the Grain, a curated exhibition celebrating the timeless art of woodworking while pushing the boundaries of tradition. This innovative exhibition highlights cutting-edge concepts, contemporary techniques, and the evolving relationship between function and form.

Against the Grain will present a stunning array of furniture, sculpture, utilitarian objects, and more. Each piece reveals the unique beauty of wood as a medium and the boundless creativity that skilled hands and meticulous craftsmanship can achieve.

Curated by Tampa-based furniture maker and artist Kurt Raschke, the exhibition will be on view at Florida CraftArt in the heart of downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, showcasing contemporary wood artists from all over the nation.

Note: Against the Grain is a “hybrid” open-call and invitational exhibition, meaning that it will include a combination of artists invited directly by the curator and artists chosen from the open call-for-entry by the curator.

This exhibition is generously sponsored by Wildcat Cove Foundation

Curatorial Statement, Kurt Raschke

Against the Grain is meant to change what we think of when we hear the term “woodworking,” to encourage our minds to stray from the typical connotations of basic furniture and craft show fare, like cutting boards and simple bowls. How does woodworking surpass craft to become art?

When artists embraced craft and eschewed the standard designs of the past to propel woodworking into the future, the studio craft movement was born. Artists working in wood, such as Wendall Castle, Wharton Esherick, Sam Maloof, and George Nakashima, concentrated on one-off, unique pieces projecting their artistic vision versus making the same standard or popular pieces of their time. In 1979, Garry Knox Bennett built a beautiful showcase display cabinet with intricate design. In place of a pull on one of his doors, he drove in a bent nail. This one little feature outraged many traditional woodworkers but ignited a passion in many others: Woodworking could be art. Woodworking could cause controversy. Woodworking could inspire and create discussions.

This exhibition features artists who have left the confines of typical woodworking. It includes furniture makers stepping away from traditional building techniques and styles to turn the craft on its head and other artists creating items using the medium of wood. The featured pieces demonstrate that the studio craft movement remains very much alive today.

Guest Curator
Kurt Raschke is a Tampa, Florida-based furniture maker and artist. He holds a BFA in three-dimensional art from Georgia State University and completed a furniture-making intensive program at the Center for Furniture Craftmanship in Maine to hone his woodworking skills. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Florida School of Woodwork in Tampa.

Kurt’s furniture and sculptural work have been exhibited nationally. His work is based on traditional techniques while creating modern designs. He loves to add fun, quirky touches to counteract the seriousness often associated with art. Kurt also teaches woodworking classes, takes on apprentices, and, on occasion, is recognized in public for his woodworking product videos.

Participating Artists: Eric Blackmore (Edgewood, FL), Critz Campbell (West Point, MS), Tim Carter (Ormond Beach, FL), D Nina Cruz (Stewartsville, NJ), Raul Darriba (Tampa, FL), Peter Dayton (St. Petersburg, FL), Gary Greer (Safety Harbor, FL), Weston Hall and Dana C. Tupa (Dover, TN), Jason Haskell (Portland, ME), Mike Ingold (Lutz, FL), Thomas Kamila (Ashburnham, MA), Simon Levy (Ashland City, TN), Stephan Micheletto-Blouin (Nashville, TN), Milton Mizell (Miami Shores, FL), John Morgan (Tampa, FL), Chris Morrey (Norman, OK), Kelly Parker (Kansas City, MO), Seth Peter (Minneapolis, MN), Erika Scheer (Waupun, WI), Kate Swann (Tampa, FL), Larry Weiner (St. Petersburg, FL), Mauro Wieser (Orlando, FL), Kimberly Winkle (Cookeville, TN)