MILES LAWTON GRACEY

Miles Lawton Gracey works from his studio in the Hudson Valley, New York, creating sculptural furniture that blends narrative, fantasy, and craft. Born in 1987 and raised in a small coastal town in California, Gracey's worldview remains deeply influenced by the sea. His practice explores themes of shelter, femininity, nature, and familial history through functional objects that exist somewhere between Rococo and science fiction.

Gracey is a classically trained woodworker who combines traditional techniques with imaginative storytelling. He works in various woods including cherry, walnut, maple, oak, ash, and fir, often incorporating materials like mother-of-pearl and abalone shell. His work draws from marine forms and personal memory, particularly his grandmother's life by the beach and her house filled with shells, with childhood memories of walking beaches to find specimens informing his artistic vision.

Central to Gracey's work is the etymological connection between snail, shell, scale, and shelf, all sharing the root "skal" meaning protective space or covering. His furniture embodies this concept of shelter and protection while celebrating ornamentation as a vehicle for allegory and metaphor. Gracey received an MFA in Furniture Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art, a BFA in Sculpture from Otis College of Art and Design, and a woodworking degree from The Krenov School of Fine Furniture. His work reunites the mystic with the quotidian, creating sculptural objects that tell stories about life to the spaces where life unfolds.