BIOGRAPHY

He marries a painter’s attention to surface with a craftsman's devotion to function. The furniture pieces are so streamlined and almost Shaker-like in their design, their simplicity makes a great canvas for surface. A maker of art both stringent and playful, art that references furniture history and Modernism.

Cate McQuaid
Boston Globe

... his magnificent building blocks of design, the sphere and ellipse, circle, square, cylinder and rectangle. Straightforward and solid, in Byers' skillful hands they serve as large canvases on which he projects mesmerizing carved and painted patterns.

Jeannine Falino
American Craft

There is something more to the first hand experience of John Eric Byers' objects - they leave an indelible, enduring impression. As the twist on the old familiar anecdote goes, "once you have seen one, well, you have seen only one." To see them all, or at least so many of his works in one major retrospective is to see the magic and the evolution of one of the great, living, emerging masters of contemporary American studio furniture.

Gretchen Keyworth, Director
Fuller Craft Museum

John Eric Byers performs feats of legerdemain with every piece of furniture he creates. Like any master, Byers hides his painstaking labor, and his finished works appear to have been accomplished easily, even playfully. By expressing his individualism through superior craftsmanship, respect—but not reverence—for wood, and devotion to functionality, Byers epitomizes the best of studio furniture-making today.

Ursula Ilse-Neuman, Curator
Museum of Arts and Design

Furniture as a branch of sculpture has long antecedents, and the very contemporary work of John Eric Byers happily carries on the tradition. Carved, patterned surfaces add considerable interest to his simplified forms, as does his exquisite attention to details, exterior and interior…..one can’t help but admire it’s flawless craftsmanship.

Grace Glueck
New York Times

John Eric Byers' hand-built work bridges the worlds of designer and studio artist. His ability to combine visually rich patterned surfaces with totally functional forms puts him in the first rank of contemporary international artist/designers.

Rick Snyderman
Snyderman Gallery

Grace and clarity, simplicity and complexity, subtlety and nuanced variations. The characteristics of John Eric Byers' furniture are those we associate with great music, or dance, or poetry ... John's work has become recognized as occupying a premier place among third generation studio furnituremakers.

Arthur Dion, Director
Gallery Naga

John Eric Byers' forms are studied and firmly grounded in function, and then covered with carved, deliciously tactile surfaces. The feel of the surface is creamy and smooth. The carving is precise but clearly done by hand. The milk paint is now limited to just a few shades. The surface is sanded to reveal the rich color of the mahogany he uses to build the pieces. The result is brilliant on the surface with a richness and depth that glows. While beautiful to see, the surfaces are also incredibly rich in texture, with the intent of pleasuring the hand.

John Elder
John Elder Gallery New York, NY

John Eric Byers is renowned for his masterful use of dense repetitive patterns and painstaking attention to detail. Since studying with the world-famous Wendell Castle, Mr. Byers has been dazzling critics and art lovers alike with mesmerizing surface techniques. Today he is considered one of the most accomplished furniture makers in the world, and is the first of his generation to be commissioned by Steinway & Sons.

Steinway & Sons
Art Case Collection