Patrick Kana is a furniture designer, artist, and educator born and raised on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Having been trained by traditional furniture makers, sculptors, and contemporary designers, both stateside and overseas, he creates furniture and objects that investigate the relationship between form, material, and method, often with botanical and architectural references. With an education grounded both in apprenticeships and academia, his methodologies bridge age-old methods with modern technology, all while maintaining a sensitivity and commitment to timeless objects. As a son of two marine biologists and an active sailor himself, the art of the scientific method and the ability to question natural artifacts has become a backbone of his design logic. Nearly 15 years of studio experience in various media has embedded his work in this process – the perpetual curiosity behind the why of making far exceeds the temporary intrigue of how.

His work is about discovering the forms that are truly worthy of existing. Explorations of both the natural and architectural world, fused with the finest selected materials and time-tested methods, yield inherently one-of-a-kind artwork.

Patrick received his MFA in Furniture Design from the acclaimed School for American Crafts at RIT in 2015. He began his career in education by returning to academia as the Studio Technician and Visiting Faculty for the Art & Architecture Department at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 2015 in Geneva, NY where he developed an affection toward studio management and teaching design. The active culture within a shared studio prompted him to establish Kana Studios in Geneva as both a personal studio and a cooperative space for other furniture makers. In 2018, he and his wife Emily relocated to Brookline, MA where he serves as Maker Space Manager for the College of Arts, Media and Design at Northeastern University and adjunct faculty for Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Patrick has exhibited widely across New York state and the Mid-Atlantic region in both solo and juried shows, including The Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia. His work Incrementa is featured in the book, On the Edge of your Seat: Chairs for the 21st Century, published by The Center for Art in Wood, 2016. He received a Furniture Society grant in 2010 and numerous academic and gallery awards for design and craft research. He currently couples his studio practice and teaching with rebuilding vintage woodworking machinery and designing custom digital fabrication equipment.

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